The Life Of Rose II: Keep Going
by MollyRose3417
Summary: Rose and Brysdon are finally together. But now they're getting older, and new obstacles show up to get in their way. Will Rose and the gang over come them, or will everything be ruined? Sequel to The Life Of Rose
1. Chapter 1

**I'm baaccckkk! Hey guys, I decided that I wanted to write a sequel. The reviews were so great for The Life Of Rose that I couldn't help but write some more. This probably isn't the best time, since I know a lot of you are going back to school tomorrow and everyone is doing their last-minute homework (I know I am), but I just really want to get this out.**

**So, hope you guys like this chapter. I'll introduce more people in the next one (including Toby) but I wanted to get the basics down in this one. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or just review. Thanks! -Molly Rose **

**Oh and PS: if you haven't read The Life Of Rose, this might be really confuzing. **

_Shoot!_ I thought to myself as my paw hit a sharp bolder on the ground. I felt it slice my paw, but there was just a small sting of pain and I knew it would heal fast. The problem now was that I was leaving a trail of blood. Not that my follower needed a blood trail, my scent alone would be strong enough.

I was running through the woods, trying to pace myself. I had already been running a long while, and I didn't want to start getting tired when I knew he was right on my trail. I started running faster, knowing that my pace now would not be enough if I wanted to get away. The trees whipped by all around me and I occasionally felt a long branch stroke against my fur, but not sharp enough to cut me. I couldn't hear my attacker running behind me, but I knew that he was there. I kept running, trying to form a plan. Running was great, but sooner or later he would catch me, especially since I was leaving a strong trail. I needed to transform back into my human form if I wanted to stop the bleeding.

I ran for a bit more, before finally finding a large tree that had enough branches to climb easily. Still in my wolf form, I ran in circles around the surrounding trees. I rubbed my body up against rocks and trees far from the one I was hiding in, trying to confuse my follower. When I thought I did a decent job, I switched back to my human form and began to climb the tree. It took me less than thirty seconds to get half way up, but I climbed a little higher just in case. I stopped on a large branch and stood up on it. I leaned my back against the trunk and put my hands on my knees, resting. A minute later I heard him, racing thought the forest. I quickly pressed myself against the tree trunk, trying to hide my body. There were enough branches to cover me, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't facing the way he was coming. Adrenaline was rushing through my body, and my breath was coming in large gulps. I tried to stop breathing, but I found that I couldn't stop and just covered my mouth with my hands.

_Calm down, Rose, be quiet, _I told myself. My foot had stopped bleeding immediately when I transformed, so I knew that I didn't leave a blood trail up the tree. Finally, my attacker got closer, and for a moment, he was running so fast that I thought he would pass me. My hopes died though when I heard him stop and start walking. I knew he was trying to find my scent, and I was praying that my plan had worked. I heard him walk around the forest below me, and sometimes stop to smell and study the ground. Just the sight of him left my heart racing. My breathing had calmed, and I knew there was no way he could hear me. The only sound was his footsteps on the forest floor below and the sound of my heart pounding the blood through my body. And then it hit me, the pounding _blood._ Just as I heard the footsteps stop below my tree, I only had a moment to think _shit, _before my attacker was on the same branch with me.

"Got ya," he whispered deeply in a menacing voice, before he rushed forward quickly. I only had a moment to step back before he pinned my arms against the tree. He leaned down towards my neck with a growl deep in his throat and then...kissed my neck sweetly.

"Foul!" I yelled and laughed at the same time, "Foul!"

"How is this a foul, little wolf?" He asked again, kissing my collarbone.

"You can't kiss your prey, Brysdon!" I laughed again as he released my arms and I wrapped them around his neck. "You're a cheater."

"How can I cheat if there are no rules, Rose?" He asked, then pulled back and gave me a peck on the lips.

"Hey!" We heard from below, and we both looked down to see Sean standing at the base of the tree. "No, fraternizing with the prey, Brysdon!"

"Told ya," I whispered to him. He scowled at me and pulled his arms away from my waist.

"That goes for you too, Rose!" I heard another voice say from below. I looked down to see Emily emerge from the bushes.

"Oh, please," I said, "How many times have I caught you two '_fraternizing' _during a training drill in the woods." Emily blushed and Sean just grinned. I started climbing down the tree and Brysdon was right behind me.

"So why are you here anyways?" I asked my cousin.

"You two were gone for so long that Daniel decided to send us to look for you," he winked at me as I dropped to the ground.

"Actually," Brysdon said as he dropped down next to me, "I was chasing her moments before you arrived. I actually hadn't caught her yet."

"Right," Sean said in a disbelieving tone.

"No, really," I said, then changed tactics. "What? You don't think I'm strong enough to outrun him for that long? I'm offended, Brother!"

"Don't even," Sean said, "You and I both know that's not what I meant." He gave me a small punch on the shoulder.

"We should probably head back now," Emily intervened.

"Let's just tell them that Brysdon caught me and you guys found us fighting," I said.

"Don't want people to know you gave up without a fight, huh?" Sean smiled.

"Well, we could tell them that you guys found us kissing, but I'm not sure Ace will like that." Emily and Sean both transformed and started to head back to the training field.

"After you," Brysdon said, and I transformed to my wolf form and started back, also.

It had been almost two years since the last Galliant. I was now eighteen, and Brysdon would be turning twenty in a couple weeks, on February twenty third. I was a senior in high school, and my graduation was in the first week of May. There were so many things to do before graduation though, and I didn't like to think about it all that much. We got back to the training grounds in a few minutes, and emerged from the forest.

"Well, well," I heard Frank say, "They finally arrive." We transformed from our wolf forms and went to get water.

"We were starting to get worried," Greg said, handing me a water bottle, "You guys were gone a while." Sean explained the fake story to them and they both laughed.

"Right," Greg said, in the same tone the Sean had used earlier, and he laughed again.

Greg and Brysdon, being vampires, hadn't grown up as much as the rest of us in the past two years. Well, Brysdon didn't really need to grow up anymore; he already looked like he was in his twenties. They had both gotten slightly taller a more filled out, but they both still looked strong and handsome.

Frank, however, sprouted up to Sean's height and wasn't as gangly and awkward anymore. His baby fat was gone and was being filled with muscles from training and his werewolf genes. He would be turning seventeen this summer, which made me shiver. Emily's red hair had grown out more (I refuse to let her cut it), and she was also slightly taller, but still shorter than me. She was still beautiful and had the green eyes of her mother.

Sean had grown his blonde hair slightly longer from its usual buz cut. He was now twenty-one, an official adult (ugh). Many a times have I found him getting alcohol for his younger buddies in the tribe. And okay, maybe once or twice I'll admit to partying with them, but only to experiment! Being werewolves, we had to drink _a lot _to actual get drunk. Brysdon, being a vampire, couldn't get drunk at all, so many times I found myself nestled up with him somewhere instead of partying with Sean. But that didn't bother me at all, because when I was with Brysdon, I felt like I was _flying_.

I, however, didn't change that much at all. I was only slightly taller, and my wavy dark hair was a few inches below my full chest. I didn't see many differences but many people told me how much more I looked like my mother. I disagree though. My mother was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and I knew that I didn't compare to her. Which was just fine, because every time people brought up my mother, my heart gave a painful squeeze.

Last Christmas, Daniel held a party at his house, and many people who hadn't seen me in a long time came. Over and over people kept telling me how much I had grown up and how much I looked like my mom. Eventually, Brysdon found me upstairs crying and had to sweet talk me and calm me down enough to come back to the party. Only he knew how much it hurt me, but then again, he had lost his mother too.

"Hey," I heard a soft voice say from my side. I looked to see Brysdon staring intently at me. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," I answered with a smile.

"Are you ready to go home?" I nodded and started to pack up my training stuff. "Were still going to Lester's for dinner tonight, right?" I asked him, grabbing his hand and starting to walk. Everyone would usually run back to his or her house after training, but Brysdon and I usually walked, enjoying the time together.

"Of course," he said and wrapped his arm around my waist. "I'll drop you off at your house, then I'll get Toby from his friend's."

"You can take my car," I told him.

"Are you sure?" He said with a smile, "You don't usually let other people drive your 'baby'."

"Well," I said, "I trust you. And _I_ know that _you_ know that if you do anything to hurt my car, I'll kill you."

"You could try," he whispered in my ear.

"Is that a challenge, Mr. Hollows?" I turned to him.

"You bet," he said, and then kissed me.

**Review if you like it!**


	2. Dinner

**Okay, really long chapter here, I hope you're happy. I brought back a lot of characters from The Life of Rose: Shannon, Janice, Ryan Lester, Mrs. Potter, Mr. Robinson, and of course, Toby. This is a half information chapter/ half fluff (kinda). Review and tell me what you think!**

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Once we got to the house, Brysdon said goodbye and then left to pick up Toby at his friend's house. Since Toby was five when we first adopted him (sort of), he was the right age to go into kindergarten that fall. Elizabeth and Jona enlisted him in the public elementary school that we all had gone to when we were younger. Since Toby's family was from Canada (they were just taking a family vacation in Colorado when I was taken), his name wasn't recognized at school. Yet still, we couldn't risk having people suspicious, so we had changed his last name on the records, just in case. We told him he could choose his last name, and at the time he had, of course, asked what mine was. So that was Toby's new name: Toby Fairday.

That's pretty much all I knew about the legal stuff. I hadn't asked, but I wondered how Daniel and Jona took care of it all. Getting a new social security number for Toby probably wasn't easy. Or legal. Sometimes I thought Daniel had too much money for his own good. Of course, I didn't want to know where he got that from, either. I'm just on a 'need-to-know' basis with that sort of stuff.

I walked into my house through the back door, going straight towards the fridge. Poking my head in, I scanned the contents. Most girls want an extremely fast metabolism, but let me tell you, it kinda sucks. I burn my calories so fast shifting forms that I feel like I have to eat every hour. Don't get me wrong, I _love_ food, but that also means that Sean and all of his other friends loved food, too. I often found my self extremely hungry and hoping to find relief from food in my house, only to find the all the guys have eaten in already.

I put my hands in the shelves and moved things around until I found exactly what I was looking for, hiding behind a large container. The last piece of double chocolate fudge cheesecake. _Heaven_. I pulled the plate out and put it down on the counter, then rushed to find a clean fork. I didn't bother moving to the table, I just stood at the counter and dug in.

"Hey," I heard, as Janice walked in from the front room. Sean was right behind her, obviously coming from dropping Emily off.

"Hey," I said with a full mouth.

"Can I have some of that?" Sean asked, as he reached out to take a bite.

I looked up and glared. "Are you kidding me?" I asked, then shielded my plate from him and slid down the counter. He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Have you seen Shannon?" Janice asked in her soft voice. "I came home from the mall and she was gone."

"Well, her cell phones right there on the table," I said, "She must be home."

"What time is it?" Sean asked with a smile.

I looked at the stove and replied, "Two fifty nine." I smiled too as I realized what he was getting at.

"Wait for it..." Sean said, "Wait for it..."

At exactly three o'clock, Shannon's cell phone rang on the table. We heard a scream from upstairs, and then "WHERE IS IT?!"

My cousins and I were laughing so hard our stomachs hurt by the time Shannon rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen. She ran over to the table and practically leaped at her phone before fixing her hair and striating her shirt, as if she needed to primp for her phone call. Then she calmly flipped her phone open gently.

"Hey, baby," she said in a flirty (and annoying) tone, then gave us a nasty look and hurried out of the room.

At exactly three o'clock everyday, Kellen would call Shannon and they would talk on the phone for at least an hour. This was nothing new, because we all knew Shannon has had the hotts for Kellen since we were kids. Kellen, however, was rather fond of me for the past couple of years. He even tried to court me at the Galliant, but I had told him I would think about it. Of course, that kind of ended when the word got out that Brysdon and I were together. It's not like Kellen and I had stopped being friends, but he had definitely kept his distance for a while.

I finished my chocolate cake and put the dishes in the sink, then went upstairs to my room. It was still the same, with purple and black walls and clothes all over the floor. I stepped aside to grab some sweats, then walked to the bathroom to clean up. I took a steaming hot shower, washing my hair and getting all the dirt and grim off my body from training. Once I was done, I wrapped my self in a towel, grabbed my sweats, and walked to my room.

As I was drying off and getting dressed in my sweats, my cell phone rang on my dresser. I reached for it, flipped it up, and put it to my ear.

"Matthew Santos," a guy's voice said confidently through the speaker.

"Why, hello to you, too, Damien," I said back with a smile.

"I figured out who I'm asking to prom," he continued without acknowledging me, "I'm asking Matthew Santos."

"Okay," I said, combing my hair in the mirror, "There's only one problem with that."

"Yeah?"

"Matthew Santos isn't gay," I stated.

"Um, so?" Damien asked.

"Damien! You can't ask a strait guy to prom!"

"Why not?" he shot back. Matthew Santos was the star quarter back of our school, and completely into girls. Everyone knew that, of course, because of his reputation of cheating on them.

"Because, best friend who I love dearly, he's just going to say no. You're gay, he's not. Get over it."

"But-"

"No."

"But I-"

"Damien," I sighed, "You can go ahead and ask him, but when he says no, I'm going to feel really bad when I say 'I told you so'".

"How do you know he's not gay?"

"Are you really asking me that?" I guffawed.

"It's not like he gives me dirty looks or anything," he said, as if he was trying to convince us both.

"No one would ever give you a dirty look. They would be too afraid of dying."

"Fine." He said, irritated. "I'll find someone else."

"Love you," I said sweetly.

"Hate you," he said back.

"I know you don't mean that," I said, but it was too late, he had hung up.

I couldn't believe we were already talking about our senior prom. Of course, I wanted to go. I hadn't gone last year because Toby got extremely sick and he wanted me to stay with him. I had wanted to go so badly, but I couldn't leave him. I didn't even know if I was going to go this year, I hadn't exactly talked about it with Brysdon. If he didn't want to go, I wouldn't go either, because lord knows I'm not going with anyone but him. I hoped we went, but I didn't want to pressure him into doing something he didn't want to do. He had never been to a real school, only home schooled, and I didn't know if he was really into the whole dance thing.

I heard the door open and close down stairs, and I knew it was probably Toby coming from his friend's house. I walked out of my room and down the hall, then went down stairs into the kitchen. He was standing by the counter, facing away from me and talking to Sean.

"Hey, buddy," I said. He turned around with a grin on his face. Toby was now six years old (turning seven in June), but still the shy, timid kid I had met almost two years ago. He still had blonde hair and blue eyes, but he was now slightly taller and had some color to his cheeks. He ran over to me and I gave him a hug, happy that he was home. "How was your friend's?"

"Good," he answered softly. I kissed his cheek and stood up.

"Did you go outside?"

"For a little," he answered.

"You wore you're coat?"

"Yep," he smiled, and then walked out of the room. I looked up at Sean who was getting a drink from the fridge.

"So..." I started, getting an idea. He didn't answer, but just kept looking around in the fridge. I tried again, "Soooo..."

"Yes?" he asked, finally realizing I was getting at something.

"Prom is, what? April 20th?" I said, playing with the saltshaker on the counter.

"Yeah, so?" He asked, uninterested.

"I mean you're out of high school and everything, but Emily's a senior."

"Yes, Rose," he said, "I'm very aware of how old my girlfriend is."

"Well," I said lazily, "I was just wondering if you were going to ask her to prom."

"I don't know," he said, finally looking at me, "I mean, I know we're going, but I don't know if I'll _ask_ her. I'm pretty sure she already knows we're going together."

"So you didn't ask?" I said. "You just assumed?"

"Yeah," he said simply. He seemed to stop and think about it for a second before speaking again, "Why? Did she tell you she wanted me to ask her?"

"No," I said, "I think she just assumed."

"Assumed what?" he asked.

"Assumed that you assumed." I said.

"About asking her to prom?"

"No, about assuming that you were already going together."

"So she just assumes were going together, right? I don't need to ask her or anything?" he asked, confused.

"I assume," I said with a shrug, before leaving the room.

"What?" I heard Sean's confused voice say from the kitchen.

Six o'clock finally rolled around and I was upstairs in my room. I had changed into nice jeans and a long sleeved blue blouse. It was supper cold outside, being that it was the beginning of February, and I knew long sleeves was the best choice. I heard the doorbell ring and the door opened, so I hurried to grab my shoes and my jacket. I heard voices down stairs, knowing that Brysdon was probably talking to Sean. I put my hair in a low ponytail, slipped on my shoes and jacket, and then rushed out of the room.

I found Brysdon waiting in the foyer, laughing at something Sean had said. Toby was there, clinging to Brysdon's side, and they all looked up when I pranced down the stairs. Brysdon reached out for me and I walked into his waiting arms.

"Ready to go?" he asked softly in my ear. I nodded and put my hand on Toby's head.

"See ya later, T-bird," I told him.

"Where are you going?" he asked us, as if we would never come back.

"To dinner," I said.

"Can't I come?" he said with a sad face.

"We'll be back, buddy," Brysdon told him, "Just hang out with Sean for tonight. You'll probably be asleep when we get back."

"Okay," he said sadly, then walked into the living room to watch some T.V.

"Ya'll come back now, ya hear?" Sean said as we walked toward the door.

Brysdon led me outside and to the driveway where my car was waiting. He opened my door for me, but before getting in, I made a show of taking a long walk around the car.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his deep voice giving me chills that weren't from the weather.

"Inspecting," I said, looking up at him with a smile, "Making sure you didn't scratch it or anything." He chuckled as I made my way around the car, making sure it was in perfect condition. "Alright," I said, stopping in front of him, "It's okay."

"Mhm," he mumbled before shooing me in the car and shutting the door behind me. He was at his door in an instant, using his vampire speed. Brysdon always refuses to let me drive, even in my own car.

We made our way to the diner in less than ten minutes. When we were at a stoplight about two minutes away, I saw a cardboard box on the side of the road. I was about to look away, but I could have sworn I saw the box shake. Before I could say anything, Brysdon was speeding away. I decided not to think about it, wiping it from my mind.

We got to town, found a parking spot, and made our way to the diner. When Brysdon pulled the door open for me, I rushed in, happy to be in the heat. He came in following me, and let the door close behind him with a jingle. My friend Ryan immediately rushed over to us when she saw us come in.

"Rose! Brysdon!" She said, running from behind the counter to stop in front of us. Since Brysdon lived here now, he often came with me to the diner, and got to know Ryan as a friend, too.

"Hey, Ryan," I said in an unsure tone. Ryan was my friend, but she wasn't usually this enthusiastic about seeing me.

"Uh, Brysdon, can I, uh, talk to you? In the back?" She said and winked at him.

"Sure," he said smoothly, then gave my hand a squeeze and left to go to the back room with her. Um, weird much? I tried not to let it get to me that they were heading in the back without me to do something I don't know. I waited at the counter, and, as usual, Mrs. Potter and Mr. Robinson were sitting there having their dinner.

"Hey, guys," I said, hopping up on a stool next to them.

"Why, hello there, Rose," Mrs. Potter said and gave me a small half hug.

"How are you doing, kid?" Mr. Robinson said.

"All's good," I told them with a smile.

"You know," Mrs. Potter said, "If you ever need a babysitter for that little Toby of yours-"

"Then I'll call you right away," I finished with a smile, "I know." She smiled back and continued with her food. The door opened and a blast of cold wind rushed in, and then was quickly ended when the door closed.

"Rose?!" I heard a girly voice say from behind me, and I turned around to see who it was.

"Hi, Katie," I said, standing up from my stool. She came over and gave me a hug and squealed. I tried not to gag. It's not that I didn't like the girl, it's just that she, well, kind of annoyed me sometimes. She was the school gossip, and I can't count on my fingers how many times she has started rumors about perfectly innocent girls. And I mean, come one, who squeals when they hug a girl they're barely friends with? I save my squeals for B.F.F.s, personally. Not that I squeal, I mean.

"Hey, Guys," I said, as Katie released me. She had come to the diner with some other kids from my school that I was friendly with.

"Hey, Rose," Heath said with a smile.

"Hey," I answered back, knowing (from Katie) that he had a small crush on me. But then again, Katie can't exactly be trusted.

"So, Rose," Katie started, "What brings you here?" She looked around, seeing nobody with me. "Are you here by yourself?"

"No," I answered calmly, "I'm here with my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" she squeaked. "I didn't know you had a b-..." she trailed off, looking behind me with wide eyes. I felt a strong-arm slip around my waist and looked up to see Brysdon at my side.

"Guys," I introduced, "This is my boyfriend, Brysdon. Brysdon, these are some of my friends from school. Katie, Heath, Kim, Sarah and Tyler," I said, pointing at each person.

"Hello," Brysdon said calmly, in a deep, confident voice. They all answered small 'hey's beside Katie, who was still standing there, stunned. _She's probably taking in his gorgeousness, _I thought with a smile. There was an awkward moment that passed by, so I decided it was time to go.

"Well," I said, "I guess I'll see you guys at school tomorrow." I started to leave and heard them say 'bye' behind our backs. Brysdon and I walked across the diner to the door of the back room, which was closed. "So what was that about?" I asked him.

"What was what?" he asked innocently.

"The whole, 'I'll meet you in the back wink'," I said, trying to imitate Ryan. He simply just stared at me while opening the door to the backroom. He nodded to the opened door, and I turned my head to look with narrowed eyes.

Sitting in the middle of the small room, was a single table. There was a white-table cloth draped over it, with a lit white candle in the middle. Next to the candle was a slim vase, with a single red rose sitting inside. There were two chairs sitting across from each other, and two white plates on the table. The room was dark, but the candle illuminated the table in a beautiful way. It was perfect.

I looked back at Brysdon with a grin. He grinned back and winked at me, then put his hand on the small of my back and led me towards the table. He pulled out my chair for me, then went and sat in his chair.

"Thought we needed some privacy. Like it?" he asked.

"Love it," I answered, then leaned over and gave him a kiss on the lips.

His lips were cold on mine, I noticed, and I frowned a little when I pulled back.

"What?' he asked softly.

"When was the last time you hunted, Brysdon?" I asked worriedly.

He sighed, "I don't know. Maybe a week ago?"

"Brysdon..." I said with a sigh.

"Rose," he said firmly, "I don't want to argue with you tonight, okay? Please?"

I knew this wasn't good, him not hunting. Vampires could eat human food, but it was just mostly for the taste, and it wouldn't fuel them or keep them warm at all. Lately, I found Brysdon hunting less and less. I just didn't understand what the big deal was. I knew vampires preferred human blood to animal blood, but Brysdon had been drinking animal blood for a long time. And don't get me wrong, I've tried to get him to drink mine, but he always refuses. I remembered the first time I brought it up...

Flash back

We were in my room, and Brysdon was about to leave for the night, but he always stayed until I fell asleep. I had noticed his hands were cold against my skin, and I waited to ask him until we were alone.

"_Brysdon?" I said, lifting my head from his chest._

"_Hhm?" _

"_You're cold," I blurted out, not knowing what to say._

"_Oh," he jumped, "Do you want me to..?" he started to pull away, and I realized he got me wrong._

"_No, no," I said, pulling him back to me. "I mean you're cold, as in you're not warm. As in you haven't hunted in a while."_

"_Oh," he said, now understanding. I sat up in bed to face him better and he did the same. _

"_Why haven't you hunted in a while, Brysdon? Lately it seems like you've been hunting less and less."_

_He seemed to hesitate before he spoke, "That's because lately...animal blood isn't as appealing to me."_

"_Then you want human blood?" I said, concerned. "Then take mine! I'd be happy to-"_

"_No," he said, moving my hand away from my neck where I had instinctively placed it._

"_But you can't-"_

"_I said no, Rose!" he said. I jumped slightly, startled from his tone. It was the first time he had actually yelled at me forcefully. His black eyes held some emotion between anger and guilt, and it became too much that I looked down at my hands in my lap. I felt him grab my chin, and lift my head up._

"_I'm sorry, Rose," he sighed. "You don't understand. If I bite you, it would hurt. I'm sure you remember what it was like when Sheldon bit you. I can't do that to you. I can't hurt you."_

"_But, Brysdon," I said softly, "It doesn't hurt if we, you know..." I trailed off, blushing as I said it._

"_Rose," he whispered firmly, "When I make love to you, it won't be because I need blood. It will be because you want to."_

"_But I do want to!" I said more loudly. And I did, because we hadn't yet. To some people, this might be fairly surprising. Yet, it's different for us. Being a werewolf and a vampire, the experience of having sex wouldn't just be one out of lust, it would be much, much more deep. Keep in mind, we believe in the whole 'mate for life' and 'soul mate' thing. _

"_You're just saying that because you're worried," he told me._

"_That's not true!" I yelled. He didn't understand. I __**loved**__ him, so much that it hurt. _

"_Shhh," he hushed me. "Go to bed, little wolf. We'll talk about it later."_

_End flashback_

"Okay," I said, answering his question and he leaned over and gave me a kiss. It started out sweet, but I moved my hand to his neck and then laced my fingers through his black hair. We pushed ourselves closer together, and our lips started to move in synch. He put his hand to my hair, and tilted my head for better access. We started to move closer and-

We heard a grunt from the doorway. We quickly pulled apart, and I pushed back the hair that had fallen in my face.

"Hello," Ryan said, walking toward us from the door, "My name is Ryan and I will be your server for tonight." I laughed and said hello. "What can I get for you to drink tonight?"

"Two cokes, please," Brysdon answered.

"Coming right up," Ryan said, then turned and left the room.

"This is very sweet," I told him, touching his cheek. He leaned into my hand and I brushed my fingers across his face.

"Well," he said, "You go back to school tomorrow, and I wanted to spend some time with you." While I went to school during the week, Brysdon did all kinds of stuff. I knew he went on shifts with the tribe, had meetings with other vampires, and sometimes just hung out with Sean. Brysdon, Greg, and Justin, another vampire, shared a town house across town. Diane, Amanda, and Tina, another vampire, shared a town house connecting to them. The vampire coven paid for all of their expenses, so none of them had any jobs. Well, unless you count being a vampire prince and stuff.

Sometimes, I come home to find Brysdon on my bed, reading my Trigonometry or AP World Civ textbooks. Why? I have _no_ idea. He says it fascinates him, but I just leave it at that.

"Here you go," Ryan said, coming into the room and setting our drinks down. "What can I get you guys to eat?"

I thought about it for a little while, before deciding on a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. "Make that two," Brysdon told her. Ryan took our menus (which weren't necessary since I've memorized it) and left.

"So," I said, putting my elbows on the table and put my chin in my hand. I tilted my head and smiled at him.

"So," he said back with a smile.

* * *

**Next chapter I'll probably get more into the plot of the story, but I just wanted to get the characters and situations in now. Review please!**


	3. Going back?

**WOAHHH. Okay, it's been a month since I've updated. Why do I suck so much? I really don't know. Part of it is that I've had major writers block. If you guys have any ideas, PM or review it to me, that will be great!**

**I'm sooo sorry for the wait. This chappie is kinda all over the place. I PROMISE I will update sooner this time. Thanks for reading! -Molly Rose**

* * *

"Guess what?" Brysdon asked me as I swirled spaghetti on my fork.

"What?"

"I finished," he said, but before I could ask he pulled something from underneath the table.

"You finished _Twilight?_!" I asked with a smile. "So...?"

"Eh," he muttered.

"What 'eh'? You're suppose to say, 'I loved it' or 'It was the best book ever'! Not just 'eh'." I said with a frown.

"It was okay," he said calmly.

"Just because it was a chick flick?" I asked stubbornly.

"No," he said, "I didn't like Bella all that much."

"How can you not like Bella!?" I asked, amazed. "She's the main character. Plus, she's so selfless!"

"Exactly! If I were Edward, it would drive me insane. She never knows what she wants, and she only cares about other people, not herself. How can you love someone else so much if you don't even love yourself?"

"She loves herself!" I said, "She's just loves Edward more, more than her whole life." I don't know why I felt the need to defend Bella, but I liked to think that we had a special sort of similarity. She loved a vampire she wasn't supposed to be with, and so did I. I looked down at my plate, not wanting Brysdon to see my frown.

"Rose," Brysdon said softly, and I guessed he realized how serious I was taking this. I looked into the deep pools that were his eyes. "I'm not saying that I don't like how she fell in love." He sighed and looked past me, as if remembering something. "Remember when you were captured? And you ran in the opposite direction from us, hoping that the vampires would follow you, which they did, so that Diane and Toby would be safe?"

I nodded. Of course I remembered.

He continued, "I was scared out of my mind. But after it was all over, I was still scared. Because that proved that you would rather put yourself in life threatening danger, even when it's not necessary, to save the one's you love. It is _that_ which scares me, because it also means if we're in that sort of situation in the future, I know what you would do."

"But you would do the same," I said softly. "If it was Greg or Amanda, or even Sean, you would do the same. Or me." I added.

"Of course I would!" He let at a frustrated sigh. "That's different."

"How?" I asked.

"Because..." he seemed for a loss at words, "Because...you're not getting the point here, Rose. We're not talking about what I would do, we're talking about you."

"Well," I grumbled, "It's my favorite book."

"I know it is," he sighed.

"It's really good," I said.

"I didn't say it wasn't," he said, and I looked up to see him smiling. He was mocking me, but I didn't want to start a fight.

"Your friends seemed nice," Brysdon said, watching me as I took a bite of my dinner.

"They're not really my friends," I told him, "More like _acquaintances_."

"You don't like them?" he asked.

"No, no. It's not that I don't like them; it's just that I can't really talk to them. Not like I can talk to Emily and Damien and, well, you."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Being a werewolf is a big part of who I am," I said somberly, "It's hard talking about other things that don't involve mystical creatures in one way or the other. And, it's not like I can talk about other things like soccer anymore." I looked down at my plate, frowning. "That pretty much leaves gossiping when it comes to them, and I'm not much of a gossiper." I looked up at Brysdon and smiled. "She seemed to like you, though."

I laughed at his face of disgust. "What?" I asked, "She's really pretty."

"Yes," he said calmly, "She is pretty. But," he continued, and his deep voice rumbled through my body, "No one could compare to you, little wolf." His use of my nickname sent shivers through my spine.

We left the diner around ten and headed back to Brysdon's place for the night. It was the first time in a while where we could both spend the whole night together, and we weren't going to waste it. I had told Ace that I was sleeping over Emily's, cause he wasn't too fond of the idea of Brysdon and I together in a room all night. I was technically an adult, being eighteen and all (even though most of the tribe would still swear that I was a kid), but I was living under Ace's house still, and Ace's rules.

We parked in the long driveway of the connecting town houses where Brysdon lived. Amanda's car wasn't in the driveway next to Brysdon's, and neither were anyone else's. Brysdon came an opened my door, then slipped his hand around my waist as we walked up the elegant stone path. I knew Brysdon and the rest of the vampires who stayed here since the Galliant asked for something small as a house from the king and queen, insisting they stayed inconspicuous. The royal family optioned for a large 'house' (more like mansion), but Greg and Brysdon managed to convince them to buying two connecting town houses, one for the boys and one for the girls. But of course, the queen got to have some fun with it, and the town houses no doubt were very big, and very beautiful. She also designed it before she left, making sure her son and crew lived in comfort.

There was a note on the large oak door as Brysdon unlocked it. I took the paper off and read it in my head:

**_Dear love bugs,_**

**_Thought you might want some privacy. Won't be back till morning._**

**_Love,_**

**_The vampires_**

I laughed out loud at Amanda's note and handed it to Brysdon. He looked at it and smirked, then opened the door for us. I put my coat up on a hook in the foyer, and then walked down the long hallway to the kitchen. Brysdon closed and locked the door behind us, then followed me through the house. I went up the back stairs and kept walking until we got into one of the spare rooms with the flat screen T.V.

We ended up lying on the floor with lots of blankets and pillows, watching a movie. _Vampires vs. Werewolves: The Final Battle._ I mean come on, it's too ironic no to watch it. Of course, we didn't watch all of it, since we kept stopping to kiss.

"I had lot's of fun tonight," I told him, as he leaned down to kiss me below my ear.

"Me too," he grumbled, and trailed kissed down my neck. I placed my hands below his shirt and trailed my hands over his abs. They were cold and hard, and my fingers dipped in every crease of every muscle. He grabbed his shirt when I got to his pecks and raised it above his head. His lips moved to my mouth, and he kissed me like he wanted to win a gold metal. More clothes came off until I was in my bra and panties and he was just wearing his sweats. I knew it wouldn't go much further, cause it never did, and it always pissed me off. But I didn't want to press the issue now, and ruin the already great night. It was hard not to think about it however, when he got carried away and put his hand on the back of my thigh and lifted my leg around his waste. _God,_ I thought, _he's torturing me. _

We continued to kiss and kiss, the movie long forgotten, until finally we just lay there against each other. Sometime I must have dozed off, because it was a while before I felt Brysdon's body stiffen from underneath me. My eyes open slowly, and I looked up to see his face in the dark.

"What's up?" I asked him wearily. His eyebrows were pulled down and he was frowning.

"Something's wrong," he said. I started to sit up, but he pushed me back down. "Go back to sleep," he said softly, "I'll be right back." He moved out from underneath me and sat up, then put the rest of the covers on me. He grabbed his shirt and slipped on his shoes, then left the room. Once I made sure he was down the hallway and going down the stairs, I got up and slipped on one of his shirts. It was so big on me it went to me knees.

I slipped out the door and tiptoed to the top of the stairs. There was a set of stairs on both ends of the upstairs hallway, each one leading to a different part of the house. Like I said, it wasn't a small town house. I went to the one that led down to the living room, and waited on the top step so I was blocked by the wall, but I could still hear they're voices.

"...makes no sense," I caught the end of a sentence. I recognized the voice of Justin, Brysdon and Greg's other vampire roommate. When the king told us that Justin would be staying with them, he said it was because Justin wanted too, but I knew it was because Justin was acting for a bodyguard for the vampire prince, to Greg's dismay.

"I know," I heard another distinct female voice say, and knew it was Amanda. "But that's what he said on the phone."

"Are you sure it wasn't like...a stray or something?" Diane inquired.

"I don't think there is such a thing as a stray werewolf, right?" Tina asked. Tina was like Justin, staying with Amanda and Diane. I had told Brysdon that I thought Tina had a thing for Justin, but he just laughed.

"I've never heard of one," Greg said, "But there's a first time for everything."

I wondered what they were talking about. A stray werewolf? _I _certainly had never heard of one. Every werewolf I had ever met belonged to my tribe or another tribe in Colorado.

"Here," I heard Amanda say, "He wants to talk to you." I heard some footsteps and someone sat down on the couch.

"Hello?" Someone said, and I knew without a doubt it was Brysdon, being the lowest voice in the room. He sighed, probably in response to whoever was on the phone. "Yes, sir." There was a pause, and I had an urge to go down the steps and join them so that I could listen in, but I knew it wasn't any of my business. Well, for now at least. "When?" Brysdon ask. "I don't know, sir, I'll have to ask them. Are you sure you didn't recognize the scent?" There was another short pause. "Yes, I'm sure it will be good for him. Yes, I'll talk to everyone; we'll call you later in the morning. Send our condolences to his family. " I heard the click of a cell phone shutting, and then Brysdon sighed.

"He didn't recognize the scent?" Greg asked.

"No," Brysdon replied, "But he's positive it's werewolf, and he says that the Kuzon tribe is laced with the scent." _The Kuzon tribe,_ I thought softly, _that's our tribe._ "He wants us to come back, to see if we recognize the scent and see if we know the wolf. He also thinks it's good if you go back, Greg, because the situation would be good for you to handle as future king."

There was a short silence, and I wondered what was going on.

"So we're going back?" Amanda said quietly.

"I don't think we have a choice," Diane replied. My heart skipped a beat. _Going back?_

"Only temporarily," Brysdon said, "until we've figured everything out."

"I think we've already figured it out," I heard Justin say. "Let's look at the facts. A vampire from our coven was murdered, and he was found with large gashes through his body like claw marks. We know it's a werewolf, and the king even said it had the Kuzon scent laced with it. Looks like one of our werewolves here it guilty,"

"You don't know that!" I heard Brysdon snap, and I jumped. There was a pause, and I could just picture him taking deep breaths to calm himself. "You can't decide that." He said more softly, but still very tensely.

"Better me than you!" Justin said, "At least I don't have _emotional ties_ to the pack." There was a loud, animal like growl rip through the silence, and I prayed Brysdon wouldn't lash out at Justin right then and there.

"Look," Amanda said, obviously trying to prevent a fight, "After living here for almost two years, I think we all have emotional ties to the pack. Let's all just wait 'til morning, and we'll drive over and tell the pack what's up. For all we know, all that's going to happen is that the six of us go back for a week, we settle whatever the problem is, and then we come back. Okay?"

There seemed to be a silent agreement because I heard no one protest, and then footsteps started to fade away in the house. Two sets starting walking towards the staircase, and I quickly got up and tip toed back to the room. I took off Brysdon's shirt and threw it in a corner, then hastily got under the covers on the floor and closed my eyes. I heard the floorboards creek in the hallway and then the door opened. I tried to even my breathing, to make it look like I was sleeping, but I don't even know why I tried. My heart was racing from the conversation I overheard. A cold hand brushed my hair back on my head.

"I know your up, little faker," Brysdon said, and I opened my eyes and smiled at him. He sat down beside me and leaned back against the wall.

"Is it true?" I asked it a rush, sitting up, "One of the vampires in your coven was killed? Who? Do I know him?"

"No," he said, "He didn't come to the past Galliant. He's...royal, in a way. The king had one sister and one brother, both younger than he is. It was one of their children, Greg's cousin. His name was Jonathan, and he was the vampire who would have been prince if something were to happen to Greg."

"Wow," I said, "Is Greg okay?"

"Greg's fine. They were never really that close, but I think it was a large blow to the entire royal family. Especially since..." Brysdon trailed off, and he looked over my head.

"A werewolf killed him?" I finished in a whisper.

"Yes," he said. I couldn't wrap my head around it, the thought that a werewolf, especially from our tribe, would kill a vampire.

"The king wants you to go back?" I asked him. This thought made me frown. "For how long?"

"I don't know," he said, and rubbed his hands down his face. "He wants us to go back to see if we recognize the scent, since we've practically met everyone in the Kuzon tribe, and he thinks it would be a good situation for Greg to have to deal with. Part of being the king is knowing how to deal with tough situations, especially ones that include other covens or tribes." Brysdon took his hands away from his face, and looked at me. His eyes were deep and dark, the specks of green shining from the moonlight coming from the window. They were haunting. "I just don't understand," he said, "Why would a werewolf kill anyone from the royal family? Especially a werewolf from _your_ tribe attack someone from _my_ coven. We've had a treaty for hundreds of years, nothing like this has ever happened before."

"You don't know it's one of the Kuzon werewolves," I said defensively. "It could be a big mistake."

"I know," Brysdon said, "I didn't mean it accusingly. I just don't understand." He grabbed me by the arms, lifted me up, and sat me in his lap. I rested my head on his shoulder while he absent-mindedly brushed my hair.

"How long will you be gone for?" I asked sadly.

I felt his chest vibrate when he spoke. "You mean we?"

"What?" I asked.

"You mean, how long will _we_ be gone for?" I lifted my head to look at him.

"Really?" I asked with a smile.

He sighed. "The king and queen want me to bring you, along with a few other werewolves."

"Nice!" I said with a grin. "So I can meet the rest of your friends and see where you grew up and meet Amanda's friends and the rest of the royal family and-"

Brysdon put a finger on my lip to hush me. "Yes, yes, you can meet everyone. But, Rose, it's not going to be as great as you think it is. There was a reason that not all of the royal family came to the Galliant two years ago."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"Not everyone feels the same sentiments about werewolves as the king and queen do. Hell, _I_ didn't even want to go to the Galliant, but I had my duty to stay with Greg, as his second in command. But," he said, and his eyes turned gentle as he looked at me, "it was the best thing I had ever done. I never would have met you if I had stayed." I smiled back as my heart lurched to my throat.

"And now we won't be apart," I told him with a smile.

"Yes," he said, "We won't be apart." He kissed me softly on the lips, but something was wrong. When we pulled back, he smiled at me, but it didn't reach his eyes. He wasn't telling me something, and that made my stomach uneasy.


	4. Whoa

***Mistake alert* Last chapter I had wrote that Brysdon had said that Rose goes back to school tomorrow... Yeah, scratch that. Let's pretend it's Monday but it's a teacher work day or something? Yeah, how bout that.**

**Anyways, so this chappie doesn't really have Brysdon. I know *tear* *tear*, but it still is veerrryy interesting. Hope everyone likes! Reviews=Love. -Molly Rose**

Brysdon and I didn't go back to sleep that night. He drove me back to my house around eight, and dropped me off.

"We have to go talk to Jona and Daniel," Brysdon told me, as he walked me to the door, "The others and I are going to inform him on everything that's going on, and ask permission to take some of you back with us."

"How long will it be?" I stopped on the top step and he stopped on the step below me so we were now at eye level.

"I don't know," he said, "Maybe a week? Two weeks?" He frowned for a second. "Can you afford to miss that much school?"

"Pshh, yeah. All of the seniors have basically gotten into college already, and it's not like we're learning anything new. Plus, I'm an A student, the teachers love me." I smiled and gave him my best suck up look.

He chuckled and kissed my cheek. "I'll be back as soon as everything is settled."

"And then you'll come tell me, right?"

"Of course," he said, then turned around and went back to the car. I watched as he pulled out of our driveway and sped down the road. I turned and opened my door, knowing that it would be unlocked.

"I'm home!" I yelled once I got inside.

"No one cares!" Shannon yelled back from upstairs.

"Love you, too, cuz," I smiled, "Love you, too." I walked to the kitchen to get a snack and pulled out my cell phone.

I sent a text to my two best friends: **Lunch at the waterfall at twelve? **

While I waited for a response, I went and got all of the necessary supplies of making a P.P. and J. A couple minutes later, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

**Of course. Major news to tell you.** That one was from Emily, and I wondered if her news was the same as my news. I sat down at the table and ate both of my sandwiches, then moved to the couch in the living room. I turned on the T.V. and started watching the last _Lost_ episode that I had missed. By nine, Damien still hadn't replied to my text, so I decided to call him.

I pressed 4 on speed dial, and waited until the last possible ring.

"Hello?" A deep, tired voice answered.

"Hey, D!" I said cheerfully, and tried to hold in my giggle.

There was a long, silent, pause before he answered me again. "There better be a good reason to why you are calling me at nine in the morning, Rose."

"I'm sorry," I said, "Did I wake you up?"

"You are such a bitch," he said with a sigh.

"Look, I just wanted to make sure you knew that we're meeting for a lunch at the waterfall. You didn't respond to my text."

"I'm hanging up now, and if you call me again, I will rip your tail off."

"You're coming, though, right?" I asked, "I have something important to tell you!"

"Nothing," he said angrily, "is more important than sleeping right now." The line clicked to an end.

I slept the rest of the morning due to the fact that I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. Sean called me at some point and told me that Elizabeth had taken Toby to the mall to get some new clothes, and that they would be back later in the after noon. I went up stairs around eleven to take a shower and get dressed before I left.

The steaming hot water felt wonderful on my skin, and the steam in the air felt good when I took a breath. I washed my hair with my favorite mix of strawberry shampoo and kiwi conditioner. I shaved, washed, and then stepped onto the fluffy towel outside my shower. Once I dried off and slipped on my t-shirt and jeans, I blow dried my hair, knowing that if I left it wet it would freeze in the extremely cold weather outside. I went to my room and put on socks, then took a necklace off the counter. It was Brysdon's mother's locket that he gave me at my birthday party during the Galliant. Surprisingly enough, I hadn't broken or lost it yet. But it meant the world to me, and I read the inscription on the inside to myself at least a hundred times. _L'amore non __è perso mai. Love is never lost. _

* * *

"You're kidding me!" Damien shouted.

"Nope," I said, taking a sip of my coke, "Completely serious."

Emily, Damien, and I were sitting on a blanket by the bank of my waterfall, eating a picnic lunch we had packed. Damien had complained that we were having a picnic in the middle of winter, but we can't break tradition. Whenever we have something important to tell each other, we meet at the waterfall for lunch. End of story. Well, unless it's really urgent and we have to tell each other right away. We were sitting Indian style, gossiping about what we had overheard, just like we had when we were younger. I had just told them about the vampire murder, but Emily didn't seem as stunned as Damien.

"That's what I was gonna tell you guys," she said eagerly, "This morning when we were eating breakfast, my mom came in and told my dad that James and Hannah were on the phone and wanted to speak to him. Naturally, Frank and I picked up the line and listened. I mean, come on, it's not everyday the king and queen vampires both call your house." She took a bite of her sandwich and then continued with her mouth half full. "We didn't hear much, because James said that he wanted Greg and Brysdon to talk to him in person about it, but we got that there was a murder, and they think that a Kuzon werewolf is involved."

"Damn," Damien said, "Why would they think that?"

"Well, they know it's a werewolf who killed him," I said, "The scent and...evidence is obvious, but they think they smell the Kuzon scent mixed in with the blood."

"That's impossible," Damien said, "No one from our tribe would ever kill a vampire from their coven." His eyebrows pulled together as he seemed to realize something. "Not on purpose anyways."

"Not on purpose?" Emily asked incredibly, "You think a wolf did it _on accident_?"

"I think," Damien shot back, "That it could have been done in self defense."

"Self defense?" I asked. "You think it was the vampire's fault?"

"I don't really know anything. All I'm saying is that maybe we need to look at this from another angle. _If_ it is one of our wolves who killed him, and I'm not saying it is, but if it is, maybe the vampire had a bigger part in it than just being in the wrong place, alone, at the wrong time."

I looked at my hands in my lap. This was so weird, nothing like it had ever happened before. I mean, of course there were the bad vampire covens out there that killed humans and caused ruckus, just like the vampire coven that attacked at the last Galliant and the Galliant when my family died. Never, though, have individuals from our pack and their coven had problems with violence, especially since Daniel and Jona were very close friends with the king and queen. I knew there were strong feelings disliking the other creatures (ex. Brysdon's father), but not enough for anyone to go so far as murder.

Maybe I was getting too ahead of myself. We didn't even really know any of the details yet. I would just have to wait until Brysdon came back and tell me.

"So, you're going back with them?" Emily asked, breaking the tension.

"I hope so," I said excitedly, "I mean it would be cool to meet the whole royal family, and see where they live and all that."

"You said that Brysdon said he was taking you and a couple other wolves," Damien said curiously, "Do you think we could be two of them?"

"I have no idea," I said, "I hope so."

We continued to finish up the rest of our lunch that we made. We switched topics, dropping the dark subject and moving on to more jovial things like who was dating who. I mean come on; we _are_ still in high school.

"Shaun Harrison," Damien said, and I looked at Emily and rolled my eyes.

"Damien," I said, exasperated, "Do I have to spell it out for you? You. Can. Not. Take. A. Straight. Guy. To. Prom."

"Shut the hell up, Flower," he said, "Just because you have an honest-to-god-most-gorgeous-guy-ever boy friend now doesn't mean that you can tell me who is and who is not good for me." I stuck my tongue out at him and he flicked me off.

"Damien," Emily said calmly, trying to settle down the conversation, "I think Rose just means that it is highly unlikely that he would say yes, considering he is probably already taking a girl to prom."

"Whatever," he said angrily, and I saw his jaw muscles bulge. "It's not fair, all the gay guys are scared of me."

"Damien," I said laughing, "I think every _human_ guy is scared of you. Hell, every werewolf is scared of you."

It was pretty much true. Damien might be gay, but he sure as hell didn't seem like it. He was one of the tallest wolves there was in our pack, and his deep voice and intimidating muscles had girls flocking him whenever we went out. He dressed like every other guy in the pack, usually just a t-shirt and jeans with a pair of old sneakers. His intense expressions made it seem like he was always about to beat someone up. I remember the first time he told us he was gay, and no one in our pack believed him, even Emily and I. But then that changed when he beat Kellen and Kevin to a bloody pulp until they admitted that the believed him. Ah, good times.

Emily clapped her hands together excitedly. "We need to go dress," Damien glared, "_and_ tuxedo shopping soon!"

While Damien and Emily moved on in their conversation, my thoughts started to drift off. I thought about what Brysdon said, and how some of the vampires still had very dark feelings about werewolves. _Should I tell them about Brysdon's expression? About how I think he's not telling me something?_ I was probably over reacting, so I didn't say anything.

"Today's what? The ninth?" Damien asked, and Emily nodded. "Jeez," he said, "My freaking physics teacher gave me a paper this weekend. Who gives papers on long weekends?"

"Uh, everyone?" I said, and Emily snorted.

He ignored me. "Whatever, I gotta go and finish it. Call me after you find out what's happening." Damien stood up, brushed his shirt off, then quickly transformed and disappeared.

"He **would** leave all of his crap here for us to clean up," Emily sighed.

"Well," I smiled, "He is a guy."

* * *

I later went back to my house and started my homework as well. It was two o'clock in the afternoon when I finished, and Brysdon still hadn't called me. I knew he was probably discussing important matters, and I didn't want to bug him, so I just waited until he called. I got so bored that I even ended up cleaning my room, and finding stuff that I'd been looking for for weeks. My straightener here, my cell phone charger there, and I even found my songbook. I flipped it open and started looking at the messy pages inside. It went from stupid love songs I wrote in early middle school, to punk rock songs in eighth grade, then just...me, in high school. I put the book on my desk to look at later, and continued cleaning.

"Rosie-posie!" I heard a yell sometime later from outside the hall. _Oh, God_, I thought. I could practically smell the alcohol coming from him from my room. I smiled. "It's maaaiilll timmme! Mail time, mail time!"

I opened my door and smirked at Sean. "Thank you, Steve," I said, "Why don't you go get Blue and find some clues."

"Good idea!" He drawled, then lazily handed me my mail and staggered back down the hallway. I laughed and shut the door with my foot. He was no doubt out with Kellen, Rick, Kevin and Erik drinking beers all day long.

I walked over to my window and shut it closed, knowing that even though the weather was just cool now, it would drop way lower tonight. I sat down on my window seat, and started flipping through the mail. Junk, junk, junk, report card (straight A's), junk, magazine, junk...and three large manila envelopes. My eyes widened and I dropped the rest of the mail on the floor except for the envelope. My heart started to race and I took a deep breath. I slipped open the back of the largest envelope and pulled out a letter. I only read the first line.

**Dear Ms. Fairday,**

We are very pleased to inform you on your admission into our Julliard School for performing arts Music Program...

I open the next letter.

**Dear Ms. Fairday,**

**Congratulation on your admission to Yale College, it gives me great pleasure to send you this letter...**

And the next one.

**Dear Ms. Fairday,**

**We, at ****Arapahoe Community College, are pleased to inform you on your acceptance...**

I couldn't believe it, all three of the letters I had been looking forward (and at the same time dreading) to getting. The first, Julliard, was the college of my dreams. I had applied earlier that fall, with some CD's and videos of my music, knowing that it was already too late to get it. They sent a representative to our school, and I had tried out with a few other students, but I didn't think I did that well. The second, Yale, was the college that I had wanted to go to since I was a little girl, an Ivy League college, and the college of every parents dream (except mine). And the forth, the college that most every youth in the tribe goes to (or went to) at one point or the other, the Arapahoe Community College. I could only imagine what the Dean of Admissions was thinking when he read my transcript. _What is a girl who earned straight A's since her freshman year, is in AP scholars, has amazing SAT scores and has way too many extra curriculars and service hours for her own good doing applying to Community College?_ Well, mister, it's not like I had a choice.

Well, I guess I did, have a choice, that is. I mean, no one was going to stop me from going to Yale, or Julliard, or any other college. But would they want me to? No. Do I want to? I have no idea.

Going to Yale or Julliard,...I would have to move away from the tribe, from my family. I don't think I could ever live like that. And Brysdon? It's not like he could come with me. He has to stay with his coven, it's his duty, and I know he would never go against that.

But there was still that small ache in my chest, as if I was missing out on some thing. Chasing a music career... I knew it wasn't realistic. I have to stay with the tribe; every werewolf has to stay with a tribe. And Yale? Probably the best education I could possibly get. I could learn so much there.

No one knew I applied to other colleges; I wouldn't tell any of them. How could I know if they would be happy or mad? It's not like I'm seriously considering it. I mean, I just wanted to see if I could get in, right? Now I did, and I've proved myself. All's said and done.

"Whoa."

I jumped up so fast that my papers flew out of my hands and I yelped. I turned around quickly to find Diane leaning against my bed and cracking up from my reaction.

"You jerk!" I said, "How long have you been here?"

She was still laughing when she answered, "Long enough to scare the crap out of you."

I hadn't even heard her come in, which is the weirdest part. I must have been focused so hard on the applications. "Well you scared me. Don't do that again!"

Her face sobered as she caught her breath again, not that she needed it. "I also saw the papers you were holding," she added with a sly look, "That is some hard choice you have to make there."

"Uh," I said, leaning down to pick up the papers quickly and then pressing them tightly against my chest, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Diane." I walked over to my desk and nervously shoved them in the top drawer and closed it.

"Yale and Julliard? Damn, wolf girl, you're smart _and_ talented. Too bad you're really a big, hairy, beast on the inside." She laughed at her own lame joke and sat on my bed.

Me and Diane's relationship is complicated. We're friends, but not really. We didn't argue like we use to, but we definitely didn't share our deepest, darkest secrets with each other. What we had gone through together was something that changed both of us in a small way. I knew now, that I could trust her with my life, because she will always remember how I risked my life for hers and Toby's.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked, trying hopelessly to change the subject.

"I got released from the meeting and was really bored, so I decided to come bother you," she said with a smile.

"Oh, well, lucky me then," I said and sat on my bed next to her. "So what's going on?"

"Uh uh, no can do, Rose. I have specific orders not to say anything 'til the big man gets back."

"Well, when do you think the 'big man' will be done?" I asked anxiously.

"I don't know. When I left they were just finishing with the details and stuff. Probably soon." She looked around my room casually before spotting a picture by my bed. It was of Brysdon, Toby, and I on the jungle gym at the park. "Where's Toby?" she asked.

"Shopping with Elizabeth. You want me to take you over there?"

"Wow, you are just really eager to get rid of me, aren't you?" she said. I smiled back at her.

"Nah, I'm just tired." Not. I wanted information.

"Okay, I'm heading home anyway." She turned to go back down the hall, but then turned back and looked at me with a small smile. "I hope you and the big man have fun," she said, and wiggled her eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"Uh, yeah, thanks," I said, trying not to give away anything.

"I mean," she continued, "I'm just going to go ahead and say this, Brysdon and I never slept together. I sure as hell wanted to, but we never did."

"Um," I said, not really wanting to here it.

"I just didn't understand," she said, going on in a little rant now, "I know he had done it before, and he must be good, but why would he sleep with someone else and not me? And now you-"

"Wait, wait, wait!" I said, freezing in my position on the bed. "Sleep with someone else?" The thought racked around in my mind. "He's had sex with someone else? Besides you?"

"Oh," she said, not really angrily, but annoyed, "He _wouldn't_ sleep with me. It was like..." she started to rant again, but then finally noticed my blank expression. "Oh, shit," she said, "Did you not know?" I shook my head. "Wait, have you guys...you know?" I shook my head again.

"Oh, shit," she repeated. "Did he not tell you that he's had sex with someone else?" I just looked down at the floor.

He's slept with someone else? I had just assumed that him not wanting to have sex was some bent up pride thing. Or maybe he was just waiting for the right moment or something. _God_, I thought. _Does he not _want_ to have to make love to me?_

"Maybe I should go," she said, slowly getting up and leaving. She closed the door behind her with a quiet _click _and left.

I lay down on my bed, feeling crushed.

**Sorry for the bad language! Thought it was slightly appropriate. **


	5. Awkward

**Okay, yeah, I know. I'm kinda being a B-I-T-C-H by posting such a short chapter in such a long time. But I swear! I'm working on the next one as we speak! I'm on spring break right now, so I have a lot more time to write and think about what's gonna happen next in the story. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to tell me! Thanks everyone for being patient, the next chapter is coming soooon! Love all, Molly Rose. PS- reviews make my day 3**

Thoughts ran through me head that wanted to make me break down and cry. Why didn't he tell me he had sex with someone else? Is that why he wouldn't with me? Is it because he still loves her? A million questions went in and out of my brain like fireworks.

Of course, I thought, Diane could be lying. She did have a thing for Brysdon, and even though we had bonded in that odd way, she still might be a little salty. I wouldn't know for sure until I talked to Brysdon, so I decided that I should just let it be for now. I laid down my head and started relaxing each muscle at a time until I finally was calm enough to think about something else.

I must have been a sleep for a while, because when I woke up my eyes felt heavy and my legs were numb.

"Wake up, Rose," Some one said, and I felt a hand lightly shaking my arm. I finally sat up and pushed the tangles of my hair out of my vision enough to see Brysdon sitting beside me on the bed.

_Do you have something important to tell me? _I wanted to scream at him, but I refrained myself. I didn't want to confront him, especially since I was reaching out on a limb here. Maybe he would tell me, and he was just waiting for the right time. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"What's up?" I said groggily. I looked at my bedside table where my iHome read two in the morning.

"I'm sorry for waking you," he said, "But the meeting had just ended. There were a lot of details to work out, and..." he sighed, "arguments." He looked at me gently and pushed the hair from my face. His cold fingers brushed my cheek before he tucked it behind my ear. "I told Diane to come back and talk to you. She did, right?"

"Yeah," I said, "She certainly did."

"She wasn't rude, was she?" he asked with a small frown.

"No," I said, looking away from him and staring at the floor, "She wasn't rude."

I cold tell he was scrutinizing my face, but I didn't want to look up at him.

"Is everything okay, Love?" he asked.

I was tempted to look up and say, 'No', but I just settled for _not_ saying 'Yes'.

"What happened at the meeting?" I asked. He gave me a weird look, like he knew something was up, but he just continued.

"Turns out we're leaving sooner than I thought. James wants us there by Saturday, so we're going to have to leave Friday. He suspects we'll be there a week, tops. Is that enough time for you to warn your teachers to give you all your work?" I nodded. "Good. We're driving down Friday, so make sure you're packed by Thursday night, because knowing you, you'll wait 'til the very last second." I gave him a small smile.

"Who's going?" I asked.

"All the vampires, you, Jona, Emily, Frank, Sean, and some others. I only asked about our friends."

"Good," I said, "That's all I really cared about."

We sat there a minute, for what I thought was the first awkward silence Brysdon and I had ever had. It felt so uncomfortable and _wrong, _but I just didn't know what to say.

"Is something wrong, little wolf?" I guess he sensed it, too.

"I'm just really tired, and I have school tomorrow..."

"Of course," he said, getting off my bed. I laid down and before I could do it, Brysdon grabbed my covers and tucked me in like I was five. He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. "Goodnight, Rose," he said.

"Goodnight, Brysdon." He got up and walked to my window, which I guessed was the way he came in since he didn't want to wake up Ace. He grabbed the windowsill and hopped out, and all I could hear was the soft noise of his feet hitting the grass two stories below.

I went to sleep, completely exhausted.

"Well that's stupid!" Emily said over the blasting music.

I reached over and turned the volume down on the radio. "Yeah, I know," I sighed.

"She's probably just saying that cause she's still jealous. You're totally overreacting. Plus, I think Brysdon would tell you if he had done something. I mean not that it's usually something that you discuss, things you do with your ex-girlfriends, but if he's making a big deal out of it than yeah. And I mean come on, it's Brysdon, he's not one to sleep around. But even if he was-"

"Okay, okay, Em," I laughed, "I get it. Please stop the rambling."

I had told Emily all about what happened, naturally. I woke up this morning, feeling wrong, knowing that it was because of Brysdon. Emily had told me I was overreacting, which I was. I decided I was just going to forget about it, knowing that if I would just go crazy if I let it get to me. I loved Brysdon, too much to be stumped by something like this. I felt like I needed to go up and give him a big kiss to make up for the awkward moment between us last night, but I knew I wouldn't see him 'til the end of the day.

"But that's awesome that I get to go with you," Emily continued, talking about the trip, "I'm totally siked."

"Yeah," I agreed, "Me, too." I turned the radio back on and we blasted "Walkin' on Sunshine" the rest of the way to school.

The beginning of the day was uneventful, except for the fact that I was late to my first period and got another detention. I talked my teacher into letting me have it next week, and the idiot was too stupid to notice that I had told him five minutes later I wouldn't be here for all of next week.

I met up with Emily and Frank in the hall way and we started to walk to lunch.

"Walk a little faster, Rose," Emily muttered and sped up her pace. Before I could ask why, the reason popped up beside me.

"Oh hey, girlfriends!" Katie said, "Plus the boy," she winked at Frank.

"Hey, Katie," we all muttered.

"So, it was such a coincidence running into you at the diner like that," she continued as we walked into the cafeteria and sat down at a table.

"Yeah," I said as Emily gave me a weird look. I had forgotten to tell her about our little run-in during my date with Brysdon.

Some of our friends were already sitting down at the table. We use to sit with all of our other werewolf friends, but most of them were older and had already graduated, so we just sat with our human friends. I sat down next to Sarah and Emily sat on the other side of me, while Frank sat down next to her. Damien decided to skip today because he hadn't finished his paper. Loser.

"So were you and your boyfriend having an anniversary or something?" she pushed on.

"Uh, no," I said, "It was just a date."

"That's _so sweet_," Katie said, "I think it's _so sweet_ when guys take their girlfriends on random dates. Don't you think it's _so sweet_, Heath?"

Heath, having been listening to our conversation like the whole rest of the table, looked up. "It's giving me a freaking cavity," he said dryly.

"Oh," she said sadly, "Don't be sad because Rose has a gorgeous boyfriend that isn't you," she laughed.

Heath blushed in embarrassment and got up from the table, muttering something about getting a snack.

"I bet he isn't even that good looking," I heard a girl whisper to her friend at the end of the table, not knowing that my werewolf hearing could pick up the sound.

"I don't know," the girl whispered back, "Kim and Sarah said they were at the diner too, and that he looked like a model."

"Yeah, well," the other girl said, "He's probably cheating on her."

I sighed. "Well, I'm done here." I started to get up from the table and grabbed Emily's hand.

"Come on, Frank," Emily said to her brother.

"But I just sat down!" he said, picking up a French fry.

"Come _on_, Frank!" she snapped as we started to walk away.

"I'm sorry," I told them, as we walked out of the cafeteria and headed toward the library.

"It's okay," Emily said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, "I heard them, too." We went into the library, and sat down at an empty table.

"You're not aloud to eat in here, Mr. Robinson," the crabby secretary said to Frank.

"Oh, of course, ma'am," he said politely, "I was just saving it for later." He pushed his tray of cafeteria food away from him and smiled. She grumbled, obviously not believing him but not arguing further. As soon as she turned her back, he took the tray and started stuffing his face. Emily rolled her eyes are her younger brother and turned her chair so she was facing me.

"Anyways," she said, "Do you know what the weather is going to be like there? I mean, it's so unpredictable here. Freezing one moment and then 70 degrees the next."

"I think it's going to be snowy," I said. I smiled while Emily frowned. I loved everything about the snow. The way it makes everything beautiful, the way you can build snowman and have snowball fights, the way I can blend into the ground when I'm in my wolf form because my fur is pure white. Emily, however, hated it.

"Gross!" she said.

"Girls!" the secretary whispered from her desk. "Inside voices please!"

"Sorry," we both mumbled. Emily continued in a whisper, "At least now me and Damien have an excuse to go shopping and get new winter clothes."

"Don't you have enough winter clothes?" I said.

"Rose, you can never have enough clothes." We both laughed.

"Girls, please!" The secretary said again. I put my hand up in a 'sorry' gesture.

"Let's talk about something else," I said quietly.

"Why? Aren't you excited?"

"Well, yeah, I am. It's just nerve racking. Meeting all the other vampires, and don't forget why we're going in the first place."

"Yeah," she sighed, "I know. But don't worry about it, Rose. I'm sure everything will get figured out. And as for the vamps, I'm sure they'll love you."

"I don't know," I said uneasily, "Brysdon said the vamps aren't as...excepting to us as the werewolves are. What if they hate me?"

"What?!" she exclaimed, "Who could hate you?"

"That's it!" The old lady finally said, "Out, out, out! And what did I say about eating in here!" She pointed at Frank who just put his cheeseburger in his mouth.

"'orry," he mumbled with a full mouth. The librarian came over and shooed us out of the library. Once we were out in the hall, she shut the door violently.

"Aw," Frank said, "She took my lunch!"

"Ugh, come on," Emily said, "I'll but you something from t he vending machine."

They started to walk off down the hall, and I wandered behind them, still thinking about what Emily said.

'_Who could hate you?' _

_Uh, _I thought, _It's not that hard. _


	6. No pants

**Umm, all I have to say is that you should be so proud of me with this quick update. Thanks for reading! You guys rock my world :)**

**Love, Molly Rose**

After that, the day went by pretty quick, except for the whispering. Oh yes, there was more in my other classes, but I learned to ignore it. In our smallish town in Colorado, news gets by pretty quick. I had tried to keep Brysdon and my relationship from my school friends for the last year and a half, because I knew there would be gossip.

Emily drove us back to her house in her convertible so that we could start doing our makeup work that some teachers had already given us for the week we would miss. We got home, took off our shoes, and went straight for the kitchen. Elizabeth was already there, reading a book at the table.

"Hello, kids," she said, "I'm making cookies if you want some."

"Is that the glorious scent I smell?" I asked, sniffing the air.

"Mhm," she said, and walked over to take them out of the oven. For the next ten minutes, Frank, Emily and I munched on soft, gooey chocolate chip cookies.

"Brysdon isn't here by any chance, is he?" I asked Elizabeth around my glass of milk. Emily's house was so big, members of the pack were often coming in and out as a meeting place or just a place to chill.

"He was here earlier to talk to my husband, but he left about an hour ago. I'm sorry, Hun."

"It's okay," I said, disappointed. "I'll just find him when we're done." _Ugh._

"Text Damien and tell him that we have some of his makeup work, and that he should come over," Emily said, putting cookies on a plate for us to take upstairs. I texted him, then headed upstairs after her.

Her room was so open and bright, it could put me in a good mood on my worst days. She had a king sized bed with a princess canapé that she has had since she was 7. As soon as I took off my shoes and jumped on her bed, I started to take off my pants to change into something more comfortable. When they were off, the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and sighed dramatically.

"Who is it?" Emily asked.

"Your boyfriend," I said, and flipped my phone open.

"Sup, cuz," I said.

There was a pause with some yelling before Sean finally answered me, "Uh, hey, can you hold on a sec?" There was another pause as I imagined him set the phone down, and some distant arguing.

"What does he want?" Emily said, sitting down beside me and taking a cookie.

"I don't know," I answered.

Sean picked up again. "Hey, Rose, sorry bout that."

"Yeah, what's going on over there?" I asked.

"Well, you see, me and Erik thought it would be funny if we dared Kellen to-"

"Oh, god, I don't wanna know!" I interrupted him, slapping my hand to my forehead.

"Well," he said, "long story short, I have to take Kellen to go see Daniel because he's pretty beat up."

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, he'll be fine. We'll give him a beer and a Band-Aid and he'll get over it."

"So what's the problem?" I asked.

"Well, you see," he started, "I have my turn on shift at the west post in five minutes, and-"

"No," I said, "Absolutely not. Me and Emily are studying."

"Come on, Rose! It's just for an hour! Then I'll come back and take over. You know I wouldn't ask you if everyone else wasn't busy."

"But I am busy!" I said, "And this is my relaxing time."

"Please, Rose? Please? There's only Emily left and I don't want to have to ask my girlfriend! Please?"

I sighed and rubbed my hand over my eyes. "One hour."

"Thank you, thank you!" he said. There was some more arguing in the back round and Sean yelled away from the phone "Hold on! I know it doesn't hurt that bad!"

I hung up and started to get off the bed. "I have to go on shift for Sean for an hour. Can I just leave my stuff here? I'll come back."

"Yeah, that's fine. But what is he doing?"

"Taking Kellen to go see Daniel and hopefully a doctor."

"What did he-"

"I have no idea," I said.

She looked down at me. "You have no pants on," she stated.

"No one will see me in my human form," I said, to lazy and upset to actually care, and then left the room. I left my shoes in the room, deciding that I would just stay in my wolf form through the whole hour on guard.

During the transformation, your clothes stayed on your body. It was hard to explain, but the shift is a spiritual thing, more than a physical change. When you changed to your wolf body, you called your inner ancestors and it's like your soul changes you. That's how I could keep my clothes with me, knowing that they would be there when I switched back. Unless, however, you change out of anger. Then everything pretty much gets ripped off. I've ruined a couple of my favorite shirts that way.

I went down to the back door, cursing my brother and the idiot he calls his friends. Well, they were my friends, too, but not when they were being stupid. Then they are _his_ friends. Once I got outside, and down the deck, I started to change. When I was fully a wolf, I stretched out my claws and flexed my muscles. I always felt so powerful in my wolf form, and I loved it. I took a deep breath of the winter air, and started to race off towards the west side of the woods.

The cold ground felt nice beneath my paws, and the wind blew against my fur. But along with the wind, came a scent. _Brysdon_, my mind screamed. It came from the east. My heart was separated in two, from running to him or following orders and going on guard. I decided Brysdon could wait, knowing that I could just find him later, but I had to go on shift now.

I continued running until I got to the spot in the woods where we usually stayed when we were on west guard. I looked around, but found nothing out of order, and the scents in the air were all normal. There was no one near me, and I wondered who was supposed to be Sean's partner. Probably Erik, who had helped take Kellen to Daniel, our pack leader.

So there I was, sitting next to a bolder in the middle of the woods. It was cold, but not uncomfortably cold, due to my fur and unnatural heat radiating from my large animal body. I started thinking about random things, like why the sky is blue, and why the ground was so comfortable, I could just fall asleep right there...

_Snap_. My eyes popped open and I sat up. _Shit_, I thought, _I must fell asleep_.

The sound had come from far away, but it was still loud enough to wake me. Well, loud for werewolf hearing. I got up quickly and stood still, trying to hear more. Someone, or something, was running. Really fast. Towards me.

I had a quick mental debate if I should just wait here or go to it. Maybe it was someone in trouble and needed help. Or maybe it _was_ trouble and I would need help. I finally decided better be safe than sorry, and headed towards the person. It got closer and closer, and the scent was brought with it.

A vampire scent, which I certainly did not recognize.

I sped up, not wanting the intruder to get any closer to our houses than it already was. Fear washed over me, knowing that speeding up was putting me farther away from help. The vampire was so close now, I could practically taste him.

And then bam! I saw him. I had turned the corner of a tree and he hopped out behind a bush. It was a vampire, and one I certainly did not know. My body screamed danger. He had stopped in his tracks, and I stopped right in front of him. He wasn't very tall, and had light brown hair. Of course he was good looking, all vampires were, but more in a boyish kind of way then handsome.

I growled menacingly, and he actually jumped.

"Oh, jeez, I-"

And then I pounced. I didn't wait for him to say anything, knowing that each second that passed he was still a threat. I hit him with a force that would kill any human. We slammed into the ground, and finally stopped sliding when his back hit a tree. He started to say something, but I growled again, so loud that I could hear him. I dug my claws into his chest and he cried out.

He quickly took my paw in his hand and snapped it backwards in an awkward angle. I suppressed a cry of pain and collapse on top of him. He flung me off and stood up.

"Look-" he started, but I didn't give him any time. I leaped at him again, but went for his legs this time. He went down, hard, and I was almost on top of him until he kicked me off. _Wow_, I thought, _he's stronger than he looks_.

That thought, however, did not stay in my mind for long, before stinging pain hit my body. He had kicked me off in a bush. But with just my luck, it was a freaking thorn bush. Figures. I started to untangle myself, but my body was off the ground and I was lying on my back. The only way I could get out was if I rolled over and pushed myself out with my legs, which would of course require every thorn to get lodge into my skin in the process.

I started to violently roll over, trying to get on my side, knowing that the vampire would kill me by the time I could get out. But instead, he started talking.

"I'm sorry," he said shakily, "But that was the only way I could get you off of me! I'm not here to hurt you!" I stopped rolling, or trying to at least, and looked at him.

"I'm here to see-"

"Connor!" Brysdon exclaimed loudly as he appeared from a run in front of us.

"Brysdon!" he cried with relief. Brysdon started to walk over towards the vampire, until he saw me in the bush.

"Rose!" he said shocked, and rushed over to help me. He lifted me out of the bush gently and got me on my feet. I brushed him off with a grunt and a hurt ego.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Connor said, "She started to attack me! And I didn't know what to do!"

"It's okay, Connor," Brysdon said, walking over and putting a hand on his shoulder. "She didn't know, you did nothing wrong. But may I ask why you ran here?"

"I don't know," Connor said, "It just felt good outside. I didn't know..."

Brysdon patted his shoulder reassuringly and walked over to me. He knelt down in front of me and stroked my snout. "Are you going to be okay?" I nodded and looked away. I was so embarrassed.

He moved over to look at my cuts. "This will heal quickly, just make sure you don't shift back. If you do, it will heal faster, and we don't want you to heal with the thorns still in your skin. We have to take them out." I moaned, and he petted me again. "Don't worry," he whispered in my ear, "I'll be gentle."

"As for you," Brysdon stood up, "I'll take you back to Daniel's estate. That's where you're going, correct?"

"Uh..y-yes. I mean, yes, sir," Connor said, stuttering a little.

"Follow me," Brysdon said. "You can run, right?"

I nodded fiercely. _How weak do I look?_

* * *

Brysdon led us back to Daniel's, and on the way there, I could only think of one thing. _Who is this Connor guy? _Brysdon walked into Daniel's house, or should I say mansion, and headed toward the stairs. I started to come too, but he held me back.

"Go downstairs to the bathroom," he told me. "I'll get a towel and meet you down there so we can take those thorns out quickly." I huffed and nodded, then went to the basement door. I nudged it open, and went downstairs. The basement was huge, like the rest of the house, and had lot's of extra rooms that people could sleep in when they were on break or just tired of their own house. It was currently empty, and I went to the large bathroom and sat down on the cold tile. Brysdon came a few minutes later with a very large towel and laid it down next to me. I got up and tiredly sat laid down on it.

"Let's see," he muttered, and he pushed some of my fur aside to see where the thorns were. "Looks like it starts in the middle of your back and most of your left side." So he started the long process, of parting my fur, grabbing the thorn, pulling it out, parting my fur, grabbing the thorn, pulling it out. Again and again and again.

I was expecting the process to be long and stingingly painful, but it was actually kind of relaxing. The pain wasn't as bad as I thought, and Brysdon had kept his promise of being gentle. His hands were also warm, and I guessed the reason he was out in the woods is because he was feeding. I actually did a dog version of a purr when his warms hands ran over my fur, looking for more thorns.

He chuckled. "Are you enjoying this?"

I nodded my head tiredly.

"This is my last one," he said as he pulled a thorn out. "Okay, you can shift back now." He scooted over to give me room, but still stayed kneeling on his knees. I sat up and closed my eyes, then started to change. It took me about thirty seconds, and when I was done, I was lying on the ground.

Brysdon leaned over to help me up, but I just couldn't wait. I reached up, clasped my hands behind his neck and pulled him down towards me. He started to say something, but I smashed my lips up against his. I moved us so that he was directly on top of me, and he had put his hands on either side of my face to keep from falling on me. At first he didn't respond to my violent connection, but then he started to kiss me back, and it was _glorious_. It was all hunger, and passion, and yearning. I was trying to make up for the awkward moment we had yesterday. I tugged harder on his neck, and his arms clasped to his elbows so that his body was actually touching mine. He opened his mouth to say something, and I took the opportunity to stick my tongue in his. Brysdon, happily playing along, did the same, and the kiss became even more fierce. I took my legs and wrapped them around him waist, and he slowly reached down to touch my thigh. His hands were like fire against my bare skin. _Screw you, Diane._

The kiss finally slowed down, due to the fact that I actually needed to breath. When we both pulled back, I was panting while Brysdon was taking deep breaths that he didn't technically need, but was out of habit. We stayed in that position for a little, with him still on top of me, and our faces just inches apart. His dark eyes were staring into mine with an intensity I could not describe. He finally moved to kiss the hollow on my neck, and his large hand rubbed my leg.

"You don't have any pants on," he whispered into my skin.

I blushed. "Oh, uh, yeah."

"Why, little wolf, do you not have any pants on?" He moved so that his lips were on my ear.

"Well, you see, what happened was..." he laughed and his whole body shook against mine.

That day, I decided that kissing was better than...well, not kissing.

**Reviews make me happy.**


	7. AN sorry

Hey everyone. Okay, so, I know I suck with not updating. Yeah, it's been a while. And I'm working on a new chapter before school starts again (which is on the 31st for me).

New order of business. So a couple of weeks ago I found this story on fanfiction that is almost exactly like mine. I mean, they even used the name Brysdon. Come on, the name Brysdon is kind of original. I mean, I could see Bryson. But not Brysdon. Anyways, I got really upset because basically the whole story was my story. So I wanted to know if people could help me with the copy write? I really don't know how to do one, and it probably wouldn't even stop some people from stealing ideas, but I think it would make me feel better. I would even love you more than anything and give you a shout out :)

So please review or PM me!

Thanks, Molly Rose


	8. I Kinda Suck AN

Yo. So, you don't have to say it. I suck. Like, I really suck. I've been a bitch, scuse my French, and haven't updated in forever. Honestly, I got busy, lost my train of thoughts, starting getting writers block, and was scared I would mess up this story. BUT NO FEAR!

This weekend I cleaned out my email, and read some reviews I hadn't seen (since I get so much freaking junk mail). I seriously started tearing up. The reviews really got me missing the story, missing the rush I get when I had just posted and chapter and logged on to see if I had gotten any reviews from my lovely readers. So guess what I'm doing? Being a badass (not really) and skipping school tomorrow to write stuff. If I don't have a new chapter up by Saturday, you have every right to cuss me out through reviews. If anyone cares that much anyway, I might just be a loser and writing this to no one.

ANYWAYS. I'm very sorry for this long authors note. You will hear from me soon, I promise ;)

Love, Molly Rose


	9. Connor

**I'm posting this at 11:59 on Saturday. I'm not even kidding. Reviews=love.**

After Brysdon threw away the towel and went to go find me pants, he took me back to my house where Toby was waiting for us.

"Where have you been?" he asked us accusingly. He ran over and hugged both of our legs.

"Rosie had a little mishap in the woods," Brysdon answered while giving me a wry smile, "but we're back now." I stuck my tongue out at him. Miss Maturity, that's me.

"Can we watch a movie?" he asked innocently. "And make some hot chocolate?"

"Sure, buddy," I said and kissed him on the head. "Ill go make it while you and Brysdon go pick out a movie." They walked into the living room while I headed over to the kitchen to make the hot chocolate. I grabbed three mugs from the cabinet, and then grabbed an extra one when Sean walked it.

"How's Kellen?" I asked him, whiling holding up the mug to see if he wanted some. He nodded and answered.

"He's fine. Such a baby though. Daniel just said he has to wait a few hours for the stitches to set and then he can shift and he'll be back to normal." He gave me a kiss on the cheek as I added marshmallows to his drink.

"Do I _want_ to know what you dared him to do?" I asked.

"Uh...probably not," he said with a smile. "Changing subject. So, excited or not excited about going to see the vampires?"

"A little bit of both," I answered honestly. "You?"

"Same. Excited to get out of here and see what it's like in the vamp world, not excited to deal with the complicated stuff."

"You mean as in the murder?"

"Exactly," he said, "Let's hope to God we don't recognize that scent on the dead vampire."

"Yeah," I said softly, "Let's hope."

Sean said his goodbye and left to go to Emily's while I grabbed a tray and put the three mugs on it. I carried it into the room and set it down on the table, then handed one mug to Brysdon and one to Toby.

"We decided on '_Pirates of the Caribbean_' for our movie," Toby said excitingly and then took a sip of his cocoa.

"Tobs, we've watched that movie 400 times." I gave Brysdon a look that said _why did you let him pick this again?_

"Well," he said softly, "if you really don't want to watch it..." he reached to put the movie back in the case, but I stopped him before he could. God, this kid was getting too good at the guilt act.

"No, no," I said, "We'll watch it. Its still good, even though I've memorized the lines by now." I picked up the DVD, put it in, and turned off the lights. I went to sit close to Brysdon on the couch, but then Toby jumped up and sat right in between us. Brysdon laughed and reached for the afghan to cover us with.

I must have fallen asleep half way through the movie, and when I woke up, I was leaning my head against Brysdon, and Toby was leaning against me. Toby was asleep, but Brysdon had the remote and was flipping through the channels.

I looked down at my baby and couldn't help but smile. I stroked his blonde hair and thought about how much he had changed from the first day I had met him when I was captured. I loved him then, and I loved him now. He still looked like an angel to me.

"He's going to be mad when we tell him we'll be gone for a week without him," Brysdon said, startling me from my thoughts.

"I didn't think about that," I answered honestly.

"Elizabeth is staying here," he said, "She'll love having him to herself for a week." Emily's mom adored Toby.

"I know," I said. "We should tell him tomorrow." Brysdon leaned over and picked up Toby in his arms. I got up and put the blanket back down, then followed Brysdon outside to the car. I opened the back seat, where Brysdon laid Toby down, and then shut the door. Since Elizabeth was a stay at home mom, everyone had decided it would be better for Toby to live with them, so that Elizabeth could take care of him better.

"I'll drop him off and tuck him in on my way home," Brysdon said as he leaned against the car.

"Okay," I said, and leaned next to him. He turned his body towards mine and touched my face softly.

"Is there something bothering you, little wolf?" He whispered.

"No," I stated simply. Not true. Everything was bothering me. Leaving Toby, the vampire whose dead with my tribe's scent mixed in, what Diane said about Brysdon having had sex before, my different college acceptances...

"You seem distracted lately," he said.

"It's nothing," I said softly, "It'll be fine. I think I just need a good nights sleep."

"Okay." I knew he didn't believe me. Whatever.

He leaned over and gave me a lingering good night kiss. "Goodnight, Love."

"Goodnight," I said, then gave him one last peck before hopping up the steps and going inside. Once I shut the door I just stood there for a few seconds, thinking to myself. _I just need a goodnights sleep. That's all._

The week went by quickly after that, and most of the time was just anticipation for Friday. Thursday night rolled around and for once, taking Brysdon's suggestion, I packed early before we left the following day. I was just finishing when I got a reminder text from Daniel: **Shift at South post with Sean 6:00.**

_Oh crap, _I thought. I had totally forgotten. Sean must have gotten a similar text message because he walked into my room and few minutes later.

"Ready to go?" he said. He looked down to my full suitcase on my bed. "Wow. You actually didn't wait to the last second for once."

"Shut up," I laughed and threw a spare shirt at him. He caught it before it hit his face and grinned.

"Dress warmly," he told me, "We'll most likely be in our wolf forms the entire shift, but just in case. It's fucking freezing outside."

"Got it." I threw on a sweatshirt and a jacket over my shirt. "Let's go."

We left from our house and it took us about twenty minutes to get to the place we usually stay when we have South post. For about twenty minutes we just stayed there, doing nothing but listening and watching. When it became clear that nothing was out of normal, we began to play around. First Sean fake lunged at me and made me flinch, and then made a sort of gargling-growling noise, which was his wolf form of laughing. Of course, I wasn't going to let my favorite cousin get away with this. So instead of fake lunging, I actually lunged. I hit him with playful impact and we rolled to the ground. For a while it stayed that way, just trying to see who could keep the other one on the ground. After that we decided to move to a different spot to patrol, so of course we had to race there.

Half way through the run I heard a third pair of feet running through the forest besides Sean's and mine. He must have heard it at the same time I did, because he slowed down half a second before me.

And then BOOM. I heard the collision before I turned around and saw it. Something had whirled itself from the woods and slammed into Sean, knocking him to the ground. When the two stopped moving, I recognized what the blur was and ran over to them.

I ripped the vampire off of my cousin and threw him to the ground. As quickly as I could, I changed shapes.

"What the hell are you doing!" I yelled at Connor.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" He said, looking genuinely confused. He looked at me, then at Sean who was just now getting off the ground, and then back to me. "I saw him attacking you, and then he started chasing you and I thought I could help-"

"Chill, dude," Sean said, having changed forms when Connor was giving us his explanation. "We were just playing around."

"Oh..." Connor said, looking downs sheepishly.

"Yeah," I spit out. I sniffed the air and realized it was blood that I smelled. "Oh, shit, Sean. You're bleeding." I glared at Connor. "Now look what you did!"

"I-I-I'm really sorry!" He exclaimed, looking devastated. "I didn't mean to!"

"Everyone just relax," Sean said calmly. "I'm fine, my arms just needs a stitch or two. I'll be fine by morning." He smiled at Connor and said, "Damn, man. You really got me good." It was an effort to try and get Connor to relax and little, but I don't think it worked. "As for you, Rose, Connor obviously meant no harm. He was just trying to protect you."

I looked back to Connor and he turned away from me. He looked like he was about to cry, and I wondered how old he was. Fifteen, maybe sixteen? It was hard to tell with vampires.

"I'm sorry, Connor," I said, sighing, "I know you were only trying to help." I was just still a little mad about our little scuffle earlier in the week.

Connor just nodded, not saying anything.

"Anyways..." Sean said, trying to fix the awkwardness, "I might not even need stitches. Just help me get the bleeding to stop, and once it clogs I can just shift and it should heal fine."

"Well, okay Doctor. Sean," I answered wryly. He swatted me across the head.

"Oh, oh! Let me!" Before Sean could protest, Connor had ripped of his shirt and torn a couple of pieces. He then walked over to Sean and started tying them around the place where his arm was cut. Sean looked at me over Connor's shoulder and gave me a weird look. I just shrugged. _This kid is weird, _I thought.

Connor finished taking care of Sean's wound, and we decided to head back. It would take us about thirty minutes to get back to our house from where we were, and Sean decided that was just enough times it would take for the bleeding to stop in time for him to shift.

The whole way back was pretty silent, except for the last ten minutes when I kept noticing Connor looking over at me. Every time I looked over to catch his eye however, he looked away quickly. Finally I got annoyed and said, "Is there something you want to ask me?"

Connor jumped a little. After a moment he said, "You're not going to tell Brysdon, are you?"

I really hadn't thought about it. Before I could answer, Sean said, "Don't worry, kid. She won't."

I glared at Sean. Telling Brysdon actually seemed quite appealing, especially if he got mad and had a little talk with Connor...

Sean matched my glare. "Oh, stop it, Rose. Your just salty because Connor pushed you into a thorn bush."

"Shut up!" It was so true.

Once again, Sean changed the subject. "Why are you so worried about letting Brysdon know, anyways?"

Connor looked at the ground before answering. "Because I offended his mate." He glanced at me before looking at the ground again. "And that's like offending him. And you certainly do not want to offend someone like Sir Brysdon."

Sean laughed. "_Sir Brysdon_?"

I suppressed my urge to laugh and ignored him. "What do you mean 'someone like Brysdon'?" I asked Connor.

"Well, you know. High in command, respected...scary." I smiled. I could give him that last one.

We had finally come back to our house and stopped.

"Let me get that for you!" Connor rushed over and started taking the bandages off of Brysdon.

"No, that's okay-" Sean stared to protest.

"No, no really!" Connor insisted. He took off the bloody bandages and put them in his pocket. Ew.

"Um, we should go," I said. "We'll see you later, Connor." I quickly grabbed Sean's hand and started walking toward the house. I looked back a second later and Connor was gone. "Dude," I said, "That kid creeps me out."

"Nah, he's alright. Maybe a little bit timid, but okay." Sean looked at his wound, then suddenly started to shift. I waited a minute for him to switch back to human form. "There," he said, pointing to his arm where there was a light pink scar that will probably be gone by the next time he shifts, "Good as new."

We started to walk back to the house when I got a thought.

"You don't think he's gonna...you know. With those bandages?" I asked him

"What?"

"You know...how there's fresh blood on the ripped up shirt. And Connor's a vampire..." I trailed off.

Sean finally got the picture. " Oh. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

I was still laughing by the time I got to my room.


	10. Arrived

**Hello there. Not much to stay. I need to update more frequently, I know. The next two weeks I have midterms and SATs soooo....yeahhh. I'm still gonna try though, I'm a procrastinator. Okay, love you all very much. Please review, it makes me inspired. :) Love, Molly Rose**

I went to school the next day and finished getting all of the make up work I would need from my teachers for the following week. It was a little suspicious because Damien, Emily, Frank, and I all went to the office to get extended absence notes for the same week. They didn't question us though, and a small part of me thought Daniel had made a call to the school and talked to our principle. Daniel could get people to do things they wouldn't normally do. That's why he was our alpha I guess.

When I was in my last period, my teacher asked me to stay after class. I waited until everyone left and walked up to my teacher's desk.

"What's up, Mrs. K?" I asked nicely.

"Well, I just wanted to know who've you heard back yet from, college wise?" She asked excitedly. "I tried really hard writing that recommendation letter to Yale for you. Do you know I've never had to write one to an ivy league for one of my students? I just hope I did a good job, for your sake, honey. You deserve it."

I smiled. "Thanks, Mrs. K." She was my Physics AP teacher, and also my favorite. Its surprising how much you like the teacher effects how much you like the class. "And..." I thought about it for a second, then decided there was no harm in telling her, "I got my letter a few days ago. I got in."

"Oh, you did?! Oh goodness that's wonderful, Rose! Why didn't you say anything!" she asked.

"I don't know. Actually, you're the first person I've told." A thought came to me. "And please don't tell anyone else!"

She looked startled for a second, but then nodded. "Its just that," I explained, "I'm planning on telling them next week, when we're away. I'm...going to surprise them. Plus, I haven't even decided if I'm going there yet."

"Oh, oh, oh," she nodded enthusiastically. "Of course I won't say anything. And I hope you make the right choice. Yale is an _excellent_ school."

"I know," I said softly. I said my goodbye and walked out of the class.

"Yale, huh?" Someone said next to me. I jumped.

"Jesus, Damien!" I said and put my hand over my heart. "How long have you been there?"

"We're going home together, remember? You told me to meet you here." Crap, I forgot.

We were taking multiple cars to the vampire's home. I was taking Emily, Sean, Damien, and Frank in my car, and we were leaving right after school. Brysdon and Greg left yesterday so that they could get there before everyone. This upset me slightly, but it came with the territory of Brysdon being with the royal family crowd. Diane, Justin, Amanda, and Tina were traveling with the werewolves to show them the way. Brysdon told me that his dad wasn't happy about the fact that Amanda wasn't coming earlier with Brysdon and Greg, but she had insisted.

"Oh right," I said. "Let's get going then, don't want everyone waiting for us." I started down the hallway but he caught my arm and held me back.

"Not so fast, flower," he said. "What's this about Yale?"

I sighed. "It's nothing. Really." He just gave me a look. I sighed. "So, I might have applied a while ago. Found out I got it. Not going there anyways, so there was no point of telling anyone. The end."

"Rose-" he started, but then stopped when we heard footsteps coming around the corner. I sniffed the air. It was Emily.

I looked at Damien. _Please don't tell her, _I begged with my eyes. _Please don't. _He just continued to stare down at me, and then at last nodded. _We'll talk about this later, _he mouthed to me.

"Who's ready to go!" Emily said once she rounded the corner and spotted us.

"We are," Damien answered. "Let's get going." He put one arm around my shoulder, and the other around Emily's as we headed to the parking lot.

They had dropped off their stuff the following night at my house, so we just had to meet Frank and pick up Sean. Once we did, we headed to Emily's where we would follow Jona's car and a few others to our destination.

"Stop it!"

I awoke with a start to Damien yelling. He was driving while Sean was in the passenger seat of my car and Emily, Frank, and I were in the back. We were switching turns driving, and Damien had the last shift.

Sean reached over to change the radio station and Damien swatted his hand away. "I said stop it!" Damien said to Sean.

"I can't stand this crap anymore," Sean said, referring to the popular top-20 radio station Damien had on.

"I'm not listening to your alternative shit," Damien said, "I'm driving, so we're listening to what I want." Sean blew out a frustrated breath but let it go.

"How much longer?" I asked while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"About 15 minutes," Damien replied. "Everyone start getting your stuff together."

Frank, Emily and I started getting everything that we had spread out over the back seat and putting it in our bags. I was getting a little panicked when I saw all of the food everywhere. They were lucky I even let them bring food in my baby. We finished getting everything together and just sat in silence for the rest of the way, which was fine with me because my mind was racing now that I was awake.

_Oh my god, calm down, _I told myself. There will be all of the vampires you know there. The king and queen will be there, Greg, Amanda, and Brysdon. _Don't freak out. _I couldn't help it though. I started to sweat.

"Stop it," Emily whispered in my ear. "Stop freaking out." She grabbed my hand and squeezed it, and I smiled at her.

Damien suddenly swerved off the road we were taking onto a side road.

"Woah!" Frank said, as Emily and I slammed against him.

"Sorry," we both muttered and set ourselves upright.

"My bad," Damien said, "they took an unexpected turn and I didn't have that much time to make it."

"Obviously," Frank muttered, while rubbing his arm.

"Where is this place?" Sean said, looking out the window. We had just pulled onto a one-lane dirt road with nothing on either side of it but trees.

"Brysdon said the mansion was very secluded," I told them, also staring out the window. "Part of it is built into the mountain."

"Awesome," Frank said.

We kept traveling on the road for a while, following the caravan of cars. They took a sudden left after about ten minutes, and then we were driving on the ledge of a mountain.

"Oh man, oh man," Sean said, looking down at his lap. He was afraid of heights.

We turned the corner of the mountain ledge, and I gasped. "Hey look!"

"No thanks," Sean said, still looking at his lap.

"No seriously, look!" I said, pointing to the bottom of the valley. Everyone, except for Damien, thank god, looked down.

The valley was filled with trees for miles and miles, but a little below us, we could see almost a small village of large brick houses scattered around in the trees. Then there was a clearing, with more small buildings. And then finally, I saw it. Well, it was hard to miss, considering how large it was. The mansion was built out of stone, and as Brysdon said, the back part of it was built into the mountain. The house stretched across the base of the mountain, with large windows covering it's front side. The front is probably the only part of the house where you can get sunlight, considering the back will be mostly in rock. It was huge, at least twice as big as Daniel's mansion. The style was like a fairy tale castle, very medieval in a beautiful way. There were even gargoyles.

"Creepy," Emily whispered, echoing my thoughts.

Damien took us back down the mountain and then we were on a dirt road again. And then we stopped.

"What's happening?" I asked, leaning around Sean who was in the passenger seat in front of me.

"They're stopping at a gate," he said, leaning forward as well so he could see better. We were all looking forward attentively, until we finally saw Daniel get out of the passenger seat of the second car. Our alpha walked up to the small, brick building next to the gate and knocked. The door opened a second later, and a vampire I didn't recognize was at the door. They talked for a minute, shook hands, and then the vampire went back inside. The gate opened. He walked back to the car, told them some direction, and then motioned them through. We were about to make our way in, but he put a hand in a motion to stop us. He walked to our car, and Damien rolled his window down.

"Everyone else is going to park their car's in the garage and unload their stuff. But you will follow this stone road around to the front of your house and get out. Someone will come to your stuff to your rooms." He then turned his head and looked at me in the back. "Brysdon will meet you out front."

We all nodded and Daniel stepped back from our car. Damien rolled up his window and we headed on our way to the front of the mansion. If you went straight down the path, you could see an entrance to what looked like was a cave next to the side of the mansion, which I guessed was the garage. We went left and followed the path along the side of the house. It was even more beautiful up close. Finally we came to the front, where the road made a small circle. In the middle was an old marble fountain with a statue of an angle holding her head in her hands, as if she were crying. Damien stopped the car.

"So...now what?" Emily asked the question we were all thinking.

"I guess we get out?" I said, as I slowly opened the door. It was cold outside, seeing that it was nearing night, and I wrapped my north face tighter around myself. Damien popped the trunk, and I went to get my suitcase.

"Let me take that, Miss!"

"Woah!" I gasped in surprise at the vampire that appeared out of nowhere. He grabbed my bag out of my hand.

"I apologize," he said, "Being fast is part of my job description, considering I'm part of the help." He gave me an apologetic smile while grabbing the other bags from the trunk. I think he was one of the oldest vampires I've seen, yet he still looked no older than 50. Which means he was probably like 100. He had grayish hair, and looked almost...elegant rather than beautiful. "My name is George. I'm the butler for your majesties."

"Um, hello, George. I'm Rose and," I said, pointing to my pack members who were joining me from the car, "These are my friends Damien, Emily and her brother Frank. And this is my cousin, Sean."

"Nice to meet all of you. Everyone has been talking about you coming." He nodded his head and quickly walked inside.

"Alrighty then," Sean said, and started after the vampire. We grabbed the last of our stuff, which wasn't a lot considering George left with all of our suitcases, and locked the car.

The doors to the mansion were at least ten feet tall, and had huge lion-headed knockers on each side of the door. George had left it open for us, so we just walked in. We walked into the foyer and Sean let out a low whistle of appreciation. Even the foyer was huge, with an extremely tall ceiling and a chandelier hanging from it. There was a tall marble staircase directly in front of us with a red carpet running down the middle. To the left was what looked like another hallway, and to the right was a large living room with a fireplace. Past the staircase was a large window where there was a small courtyard, and the more building. I had a feeling after the courtyard; the rest of the house was under the mountain. Let's just say, it was amazing.

"Where's Brysdon?" Emily whispered to me. It was just the kind of place you felt like you had to whisper in. "Wasn't he suppose to meet us here? I almost feel as if we're intruding."

George set our bags down and clapped his hands once together. Another vampire appeared instantly. "Please take the gentlemen to their rooms," George said to the vamp, who quickly picked up the suitcases and started up the stairs. The boys gave us a quick glance, and then hurriedly ran after the vampire. "I will show you to your rooms, ladies."

We walked up the stairs as well and instead of taking a left like the boys did, George led us right. "To the left are the gentlemen's rooms, and over here are the ladies rooms. The king and queen's room is in another part of the estate, along with the princes. We kept going, taking a left at the end of the hall. We passed a library filled top to bottom with books, and I made a mental note to explore it later. George stopped at the end of the second hallway and put Emily's bags in front of a set of doors.

"I've been told to give you rooms right near each others. Miss Emily, this is your room, and Miss Rose, this will be yours," he said, pointing to the room directly across from it.

"Thank you, George," I told him with a smile.

"It is my pleasure," he said with a smile back, and walked down the hall.

Emily and I stood there for a second and looked at each other. "Now what?" she asked.

"I don't know," I said. "I guess we explore our rooms and wait?" She nodded and took her bags into her room.

I did the same, but didn't have time to explore my room, because there was only one thing in it that matter. And that was the beautiful vampire sitting on my bed, waiting for me.

He stood up as I closed the door behind me, and then I ran over and jumped into his arms. He grabbed me hard, one arm around my waist and the other wrapped around my shoulder. We pulled back and he kissed me like the world deepened on it.

And oh, what a kiss.

It was urgent and hungry and sweet all at the same time. For several seconds, there was nothing else in the world but the kiss and the fierce heat of his body against mine. His tongue pressed against mine before kissing me further, deeper.

"I've missed you," he growled, then took both of his hands on each side of my face and kissed me sweetly.

"I've missed you, too," I whispered against his lips. His arms went to my waist and kissed my neck, my ear, and the hugged me tightly.

"Geez," I told him, "If I knew I was going to get that kind of greeting every time we were apart for a day..."

"Don't even think about it," he muttered, and then finally pulled back. His eyebrows were pulled together, creating worry lines near his eyes and forehead. I put my hand to his face and traced them with my finger.

"What's wrong, Brys?" I asked gently.

His faced smoothed immediately. "Nothing," he sighed, and took both of my hands from his face and clasped them between his. "Coming back is just as stressful as I thought. I would have much rather of stayed home."

"Technically," I said with a small smile, "This is your home."

He chuckled, kissed me on the neck and said, "Not anymore. My home is with you now, little wolf."


	11. It's time

**Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm sorry? I suck? It's summer now. I'm working two jobs and doing college visits. So really, even though I haven't uploaded in like forever, you should be proud of me. Sooooo, yeah.**

**New chapter coming. Probably tomorrow. Or even later tonight if I finish. **

**And you know, I loooooovvveee reviews. It gives me inspiration. It even encourages me to upload faster. 3 Molly Rose**

We ended up sitting down on the biggest bed I've ever seen (that is supposed to be mine for the following week) and talked. I looked around the large suite that looked like it was decorated in the 1800s.

"This. Is. So. Cool." I told Brysdon.

"Yeah," he let out a sigh/laugh, "Wait until you see the rest of the house."

"House?" I asked, "This is a mansion. Not a house." I laid back so that I was resting on the plush pillows and my hair was sprawled out. "I can't believe you've lived here your entire life".

He shrugged and said, "I guess I was never really use to anything else."

"The town house must seem so small to you."

"Not really," he insisted, "It's cozy. I like that."

"Okay, enough." I said, "Tell me, what's it like being back so far." I sat up so that he knew he had my full attention.

"Interesting," he said. "Sad, a little. Jonathan's death took a toll on the royal family, but their dealing."

"Are they…angry?" I asked hesitantly. "At us? At my pack?"

"No," Brysdon said firmly. "At least not right now. King James made the executive decision that until some Kuzon werewolves came up to help identify the scent, only a select few would know that a Kuzon scent was laced in the scent of the culprit. Meaning the werewolves, the king, queen, price and I. And…Jonathan's parents." Brysdon looked down, a rarity for the confident vampire.

"You're sad, too," I said. "I can see it." I raised his face to look at mine.

He sighed. "I wasn't particularly close to him, but he was still part of my coven. And the large part of me dedicated to my coven is raging inside at the thought of someone hurting part of what is mine."

"I'm sorry," I said softly, pulling him into a hug. "I'm sorry."

He hugged me back and sighed. "I just want to find this bastard, and kill them."

"I want to find them, but to prove that my family is innocent," I said.

"I want that, too, Rose. I want that, too." He pulled away and laced his fingers through mine.

"So you haven't…uh…seen the body yet?" I asked, trying to make it come out smoothly yet failing.

"No," he said, "I was waiting for you."

"When?" I asked.

"Soon," he said surely. "They want to do this as fast as possible. Or rather, they want to know as fast as possible. Yet the King and Queen, despite the dark circumstances, are happy that some of your tribe is here, on our land. Tonight I'm sure they'll take the opportunity to introduce you to the rest of the family and more of our clan. So if not late tonight, we'll have to go see Jonathan's body early tomorrow."

"Alright," I said, taking it all in. My heart started pounding. I don't know if it was the fact that I was about to face a room full of vampires that may or may not hate me, or the fact that within the next twenty four hours I would have to go smell a dead body to help solve a murder. No matter the cause, Brysdon felt my heart rate grow faster.

"You okay, little wolf?" he asked me sweetly.

"Uh, yes. Yeah. Yes." I stumbled out, but covered my stuttering with what I hoped was a sincere smile.

After a minute of silence in which we just laid on the bed, snuggled against each other, Brysdon spoke. Yet his tone was not comforting. Not at all.

"Look, Rose," he said deeply, and I sat up in concern. "There's something I have to tell you, yet I just couldn't find a way to say it. But I need to tell you now."

"Okay," I said, keeping my poker face. "You can tell me anything, Brysdon."

That last sentence seemed to pain him. "Rose-" he started, yet was interrupted by a ring. The old styled phone on the bed stand was ringing loudly, and I reached across Brysdon to answer it.

"Um, hello?" I greeted (well, more asked) the other line.

"Hello, Ms. Fairday. It's George, the butler. I met you while bringing your luggage in-"

I laughed and interrupted him, "Of course, George. I didn't forget you. What's going on?"

George seemed to clear his throat, and said, "The King and Queen wanted to remind Sir Brysdon that dinner will be served in half an hour, and that Amanda will be up any second now to help you get ready, Ms. Fairday."

"Oh, thanks George. I'll tell _Sir_ Brysdon that you said so." I smiled at Brysdon as I mocked his title and he scowled at me.

"Why thank you so much, Ms. Fairday," George said, and hung up the phone.

I hug up as well. "I like him," I told Brysdon.

"Of course you do," he smiled back. His expression was neutral now, but I could still see the worry lurking in his eyes.

"Now," I said, "Tell me."

Brysdon shook his head. "It can wait. Plus, my sister is walking down the hall at this very second in order to help you pick out an appropriate outfit for dinner."

"What?" I said in mock anger, "You don't think my t-shirt and jeans is good enough!"

"Well," he said with a confused look, "If you want to that's fine with me…"

I laughed. "I'm joking, Bry. Don't be so tense."

He seemed to relax his posture and stood from the bed, pulling me up with him as he did. He started to turn to leave, but took a second thought a turned back to me. He took my face in his hands and held it so close to his that are noses were barely touching, but nothing else.

"I love you, Rose Fairday, more than anything in the world. You know that don't you?" His intense look sent shivers down my spine and gave me the same sense of nervousness I had when I first met him.

"Of course," I answered, trying to give my own intense look back, yet to no avail. How could someone put so much emotion into one stare?

"I'm waitingggggg," came an annoyed voice from outside my door. Brysdon sighed, kissed me on the cheek, and went to open the door for his sister. "Thank you," she said, coming in with a long clothing bag.

At the door, Brysdon turned and looked back at us. "I'll be back in twenty five minutes to get you, Rose. Got it?" And gave me a pointed look.

"Yes, _Sir _Brysdon. Of course," I said. Amanda laughed at my formal tone and her brother glared and left.

"Ready to get beautified?" Amanda asked with a grin.

"Are you saying I'm not already beautified?" I asked with a laugh back.

"Oh, honey. You're simply gorgeous. But with this dress I'm about to put on you, you'll have all the vamps drooling. And not just for your blood," She said and winked.

"Comforting," I said.

She laughed and got started.

Twenty minutes later I was dressed in a blood red gown (pun intended), with my hair pulled back into a loose bun at my neck. Emily came in wearing a similar gown, yet it was emerald green.

"Hey, good looking," I said to my best friend and Amanda went to the bathroom to put on her own gown.

"We look hot," she said in typical Emily fashion and then looked in the mirror. Amanda came out of the bathroom and agreed.

"Amanda, it's not going to be this formal, like, everyday, right?" I asked her. I liked dressing up, don't get me wrong, but I only brought so many nice close. Plus, I'm more of a comfort clothes kinda gal.

"Of course not," she said, "It's just tonight. Everyone's meeting for the first time, and us vampires like to take any occasion and make a party out of it." She was dressed in a blue gown, with a high neck but a low back.

There was knock at the door and Brysdon stuck his head in. "Ready, my ladies?"

Amanda led the way out of the door, then Emily, and then I. Brysdon grabbed me as I past him and whispered in my ear, "You look breathtaking."

Downstairs in the lobby we first entered awaited the rest of our family. Amanda, Emily, Brysdon and I walked down the grand staircase and met them at the bottom. Sean was watching Emily the entire time. Once at the bottom, Sean grabbed Emily and kissed her.

"Ew, ew, ew," I whispered in Brysdon's ear and he laughed. I've been seeing them kiss for almost two years now, and it still has the 'your-big-brother-kissing-your-best-friend' effect on me. Not that Sean was technically my big brother, and not that I didn't think it was sweet. But still.

"Ready?" Brysdon asked everyone, including the other werewolves who had joined us. We nodded and Brysdon led his way across the lobby. We walked through the courtyard, and then back inside, to the part of the mansion that was completely under the mountain. We kept walking inside until we came to a large wooden set of doors. Engraved in the doors were pictures of angels.

"Well," Amanda said to our group, "Let's get this started." She pushed slightly at the doors, which probably weighed nothing to her vampire strength, and they opened. I started to walk in, but Brysdon held firmly onto my hand and scooted us away so we were out of the doorway.

"What?" I asked anxiously, wanting to go into the room.

"I just wanted to say something before we entered." I looked at him, waiting for him to continue. It took him a second to reply. "No matter what anyone says in there, I love you. And there is no place in the entire world I would rather be than here with you, my love. At these formal parties, sometimes my obligation to Greg leads me to have to leave you alone for a few minutes, but if you ever feel uncomfortable in there, call me over immediately, and I'll come."

"You're scaring me, Bry," I said softly.

He sighed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. It'll be fine. Most of the vampires are welcoming and really will enjoy you here. I just needed to say that to you, just in case."

I nodded and before I could tell him I love him back, he quickly took my hand and led me to the door. I took a deep breath and entered the…ball room.

"Oh my God," I said softly. Amazing. It was like the ball room where we had the final party at the last Gallient, only a little smaller with a lot more gold. At the front of the room stood four thrones, a large one in the middle where the King sat, and directly next to it was a matching smaller one where the Queen was. To the left stood a throne that held a gorgeous looking older vampire who was keeping an extremely straight face. He was dressed in a black suit, which seemed to clash with his 1800s-style throne. On the left was an older woman, still quite beautiful, but not as beautiful as the queen. I guess they actually took this royalty thing seriously.

It was obvious that the new werewolf guests caused some murmurs in the crowd when they entered, but now they were moving toward the thrones. It was nothing compared to when Brysdon and I entered. _Silence._

I could just imagine what they were thinking. _So this is the werewolf girl that captured Sir Brysdon's heart. _Okay, so sometimes I can be an attention whore. But this was different. We continued to walk to the front of the room where the rest of my family was waiting. Still silence.

King James came down from his throne and greeted us on the grand floor. "Daniel," he said, and shook my alpha's hand proudly, "It's so good to finally have you here."

"It's good to be here, James," Daniel replied strongly. "I'm so sorry about your nephew."

"Yes," James said softly, "We all are. But things happen for a reason, and we all must move on eventually. Just such a shame at his young age. He was a dear boy."

"I'm sure he was," my uncle Ace said meaningfully, while also shaking James' hand. There was a slight moment of silence where I'm sure everyone in that second thought of the young vampire who died, before James moved on. He turned to the rest of us, when he spoke.

"I would like to introduce all of you to my sister and brother." The two vampires on the throne, I noticed, didn't come down to greet us. They didn't even stand. They just stared. James, either not thinking anything of it or just ignoring it, continued on with the introduction. "This is Princess Caroline and Prince Julian." We all nodded in greeting, but nothing else. "Since there are so many of you, I think it be best if you just gradually introduced yourself over the next few days, so no one get's overloaded, agreed?"

We all nodded again. "Very well," the King said. He dismissed us after telling us a few more things that I didn't really pay attention to. I just kept staring at the Prince. He looked out of place, and at first I couldn't figure out why. It dawned on me as the King was talking though. He looked sad. Sad, and very, very angry. I took a wild guess that Jonathan was his son.

People were staring at me the whole time. When I was with Brysdon, when I wasn't with Brysdon. When I was getting food, or when I was talking to my friends. It was like I was on display. I mostly stuck to Damien, Emily, Sean and Frank, who didn't seem half as nervous as I felt. The night continued on, and I was introduced to dozens of people who I forgot their names shortly after.

Yet there were two people I distinctly remembered meeting. I was talking to Brysdon, smiling and laughing and finally enjoying myself when his face turned stone cold. He was staring at something over my shoulder that seemed to really be bothering him. As if on cue, I turned to look the same time my friends did. They noticed the abrupt change in Brysdon's mood as well.

"Well, well, well, the prodigal _assistant _returns." A boy, seeming to be my age (but with vampires who knows) was standing in front of us. He had the same dirty blonde hair and blue eyes that Greg had, yet his look was different. Bolder, I guess the word was. And do I really need to say it? He was _gorgeous. _

"Hello, Tanner," Brysdon said in a dead tone. _Okay, _I thought to myself, _he goes on the list of people that I'm probably not going to like due to my soul mate's tone. _His voice softened a little when he spoke next, "Hello, Luna." Luna, I guessed, was the girl standing next to Tanner.

All I could do was stare. I thought Diane was the prettiest vampire I had ever seen. But I was wrong. Diane was beautiful in the dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, and dark attitude kind of way. But Luna was different. With blonde hair, soft porcelain skin and shinning blue eyes, she almost looked like a fallen angel. Jealously hit me like a punch that took my breath away. It wasn't her looks, however stunning they were, that caused so much emotion. It was the way she looked at Brysdon with such longing when she said, "Hi, Brysdon," with a shy smile on her lips, "I've missed you."

I'm glad Tanner spoke next, so that Brysdon didn't have to. "Well," Tanner said, "Are you planning on introducing us to your new friends?"

Brysdon gave him a look that seemed to say, _'No, I really wasn't',_ but spoke anyways. "Guys," he said, "These are Greg's cousins Tanner and Luna. They are the children of King James' sister Princess Caroline."

We said hi, and waited for Brysdon to introduce us. But he didn't. All he said was, "We were just leaving."

Frank, with all of his honest to God innocence, took that moment to speak up and say, "But Brysdon, you said you were going to show us-"

"Frank!" Brysdon snapped, and he shut up.

"I have to say my dear Brysdon," Tanner continued, looking at me now, "I knew that the young lady who succeeded in capturing your heart had to be beautiful, but I never imagined something like this." He held out his hand and I reached my hand out to shake his but at the last minute he clasped it with both of his and lightly kissed it. He apparently didn't need an introduction, "You must be Rose."

"Nice to meet you," I said politely, pulling my hand back before Brysdon did it for me. "And you as well, Luna."

She stared at me for the smallest of a second before finally speaking. "Yes, Rose. It's nice to meet you at last." The 'at last' part wasn't comforting. _Don't make mountains out of molehills, Rose, _I told myself.

"Rose, my dear," Tanner said, "You look like you'd be such a wonderful dancer. May I ask you to dance-"

"No." Brysdon replied. "It's late, we were just leaving." Before anyone could protest, Brysdon put his arm around my waist and led me away. Our friends naturally followed along.

Once we were heading to the door, Sean kept his voice low and said, "I don't like that guy."

"Why?" I asked. "He didn't seem that bad to me."

Brysdon glared at me. "I mean," I said sheepishly, "In a horrible, evil kind of way."

"I'm kind of tired anyway," Damien said, always the mediator. "Come on guys, let's go to bed. We'll see you ladies in the morning." He kissed Emily and I on the cheek and led the way back to their rooms.

The next time I saw Brysdon, seven hours later, was six in the morning.

"Wake up, my little wolf," he said, leaning over my bed and whispering in my ear.

"Not that I don't love my beautiful wake up call," I said groggily, putting my arms around his neck and trying, unsuccessfully, to pull him down to bed with me, "But why are you waking me up at six a.m.?"

"Because," he said, "it's time."

I took my arms off around his neck and he lifted me out of bed. "Time for what?"

"Time to go see Jonathan's body."

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